Twenty Years Later: Reimu's Successor
by Duwee Davis II
Summary: This is the start of a sorta-sister series to my 'Touhou Doujin' touhou fanfic series. It's set in the Epilogue's timeline, ie twenty years into the future, which of course means one thing... the human characters are older, wiser, and Reimu herself has a successor... the strangely-named thirteen year-old Miko, Patricia Hakurei. And it seems she's got an incident to deal with...
1. 01: Hakurei Miko number 14

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 1- Hakurei Miko Number Fourteen**

_Hakurei Shrine, around twelve midday_

Reimu Hakurei the thirteenth. Former youkai hunter, incident resolver extraordinaire and currently the highest-ranking miko of the Hakurei Shrine... now the sort that slept in whenever she could. However, many a year had passed since those days, days when Gensokyo seemed to be filled with chaotic incidents and various peace-disrupting youkai of all sorts...

...however, Gensokyo was a strange area indeed. Just like every law of physics, the laws of thermodynamics were twisted into a veritable mess, and entropy seemed to be working in the opposite direction to usual. Instead of things breaking down into chaos over time, Gensokyo seemed to be approaching sterility, and peace seemed to covering the place.

...it was enough to make Reimu prefer sleeping to real life. While she had always complained, the fact was that she truly enjoyed going out and resolving incidents. In fact, it had gotten to the point that a certain concerned youkai neighbour that occupied her shrine's airspace had created a false incident just to give her a nostalgia rush.

Reimu curled up in her sleep as the thought passed her by... the youkai man was patronising... such an attitude implied he was thinking she was getting old...

...who did he think he was? Reimu was only thirty-six, and she wasn't thirty-seven any time soon. Opening her eyes in a huff, she decided to get out of bed to check up on her adopted successor... in all honesty, she was surprised that her successor hadn't woken her up yet.

Walking out of her bedroom, she walked down into her living room, and while she saw evidence that her successor had been here in the form of a half-empty bowl of Miso Soup, there wasn't a sign of the successor herself.

Finally, she stuck her head out of her door, and checked outside the building. There, her successor stood... it was bizarre, considering she was an adopted child, Patricia Hakurei bore an almost uncanny resemblance to her adoptive mother- short, black hair, and maroon eyes with an almost unnatural shimmer. It was almost as if fate was reminding her that soon, Reimu would have to leave most of her duties to the thirteen year-old kid.

"Hey, Patricia!" Reimu called out, walking out of the shrine's main building to talk to her successor, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Just looking at the forest..." Patricia mumbled, pointing to the charred, skeletal trees that grew beyond the shrine's grounds, "...what was it that happened here again? Forest fire?"

Reimu folded her arms, "...a human did this. An upstart called 'Fujiwara no Mokou'. You'll recognise her immediately. She's the one with all the burns on her clothing. Apparently this was a side effect of one of her bickerings with her rival."

Patricia sighed to herself, "It'd be nice to see some trees around here, instead of having to go to that creepy Youkai Forest in the mountains... that place scares me..."

Reimu tutted to herself, "For pity's sake, Patricia, you can't be scared by every feral youkai you come across. Now, we all prefer the civilised sorts, but if push comes to shove, you need to be able to exterminate the bitches... remember what I said?"

Patricia rolled her eyes, "Yes... if I get in trouble, hold up my spell card, and unleash 'Evil Sealing Circle', I got it... I'm allowed to be scared, aren't I? I mean, I'd still go there if I have to... bravery's got to count for something, right?"

Reimu stopped, and thought for a moment. Suddenly, her default 'unimpressed' expression changed to a slightly warm one, "Yeah, I guess it's fairly smart to be afraid, makes you work harder. Just don't freeze in fear, or you're a goner."

"Of course..." Patricia mused, "So, how was that 'fake incident'?"

"Unfulfilling." Reimu bluntly replied, "Your Aunty Marisa seemed to have fun, but honestly, that loser needs a hobby. I want you to stay away from him, got it? He's a creep. Anyway, I kinda wish a _real _incident would happen, you know what I'm saying?"

Patricia smirked a little, "Really? Because you seem to be happy enough sleeping in your bed. I came in at seven o'clock to wake you up, but you were so asleep I couldn't bear to wake you... you would just have shouted at me anyway..."

"You're too savvy." Reimu muttered, "You know, maybe no incidents are happening because you're no good at finding them. You know, a good incident solver is one that looks for unrest in every nook, every cranny, and..."

"...then steals every valuable item they can from the scene!" a voice from behind the pair decided to take Reimu's sentence in a completely different direction.

The two shrine maidens turned around, knowing exactly who it was. A blonde-haired woman in a black, puritan-styled outfit stood just about taller than the very-much still growing Patricia and a good four inches shorter than Reimu. She was holding a broom over her shoulder, and standing next to her was a slightly older-looking man with an almost identical outfit, albeit one more suited for his own gender, and just like the woman, was in possession of a broom. Unlike the woman, his hair was very much greying, and his face had a rather unkempt, stubble-like beard covering its underside.

"Uncle Jean! Aunty Marisa!" Patricia said enthusiastically, hugging the man while the woman folded her arms, slightly disappointed she wasn't the recipient of a hug.

"Oh. It's you guys..." Reimu muttered, less than enthralled by the two's visit, "What do you want?"

"That's no way to treat your old pal Marisa, now is it?" Marisa remarked, earning a disapproving look from Reimu.

The man let Patricia go, and ruffled her hair, as if she were a much younger child, and said, "Ah, Patricia, it is good to see you... and of course, Reimu..."

Reimu rolled her eyes, "Okay, Jean, seeing as Marisa doesn't want to answer my question, can you please tell me why you're visiting so early in the day?"

"It's twelve-fifteen in the afternoon..." Jean pointed out, "...anyway... I was just thinking that perhaps we could take Patricia off your hands for a little while... we have some things we wanted to show her, and we figured..."

"...you figured that I would be cramping your style?" Reimu somewhat accusingly asked the male magician.

"No, it's not that at all, it's just..." Jean began to say, but was quickly cut off by Reimu somewhat angrily conceding.

"Fine! She's thirteen, she can take care of herself, hell, she should be able to take care of a decent incident when one _finally _comes around..." Reimu said, shrugging her shoulders, "But I warn you, if you're trying to indoctrinate her with that magician crap, remember she's a shrine maiden first and foremost!"

Patricia put her hand on Reimu's shoulder, "Don't worry, Mum... er... Reimu, I'll be fine. Besides, I'm interested to know what they have to show me..."

Marisa jumped up with a glee befitting of a woman half her age, and boarded her broom, "Ah, excellent! Come on, Patricia, we're going to go flying!"

Jean grinned a slightly wonky smile, and boarded his broom himself, before calling, "Allez, ma brosse!" and rocketing away.

Marisa suddenly turned away, rolling her eyes towards... seemingly an invisible audience, "...twenty years, and he _still_ occasionally throws in his frog-language..."

Patricia cocked her head, "Huh? Who are you talking to, Aunty Marisa?"

"No-one." Marisa lied, "Now, get flying, Patricia! We'll race to see who can catch up to Jean first... he's the slowest broom-rider you'll ever see."

Clicking her heels, Marisa sped off into the distance, and Patricia, before briefly looking back at Reimu, decided that she may as well take off herself, and floated into the distance, waving back at Reimu as she did, "See ya later, Reimu! Have a fun day!"

Reimu simply looked on as her protégée trailed behind her token bad influences, and finally turned around, saying, "Yeah, I'm gonna have lots of fun sitting around in a house on my own..." Reimu suddenly looked upwards, and took note of the massive floating house that now took up her airspace, "...hm, maybe I should torment him for a bit..."

_Somewhere in the Forest of Magic, immediately after_

Marisa, Jean, and Patricia were speeding through the still-recovering Forest of Magic, flying at speeds enough to make normal humans somewhat nauseous.

Casually air-rolling out of the path of a crisp-black tree, Patricia asked, "So, what is it you had to show me? It's something Reimu doesn't like, isn't it? That's why you're taking me away..."

Marisa cackled gratuitously, as if she had been working on her laugh, "Aren't you smart... well, yes, I need you for something..."

Jean proceeded to fire a green shot in front of him, removing a tree in his path, before saying, "...honestly, I do have something to give to you, Patricia, but Marisa insisted that I had to make you earn it..."

"Earn what?" Patricia asked.

"It's a secret! Jean, don't you dare tell her!" Marisa said, her exhilarated laughter seeming to show that her age meant precisely nothing to her, "First, you've got to overcome... uh... a trial of guts! Yeah, a trial of guts!"

Patricia smirked, "Oh yeah? What's kind of scary thing will I have to face?"

Marisa grinned back to Patricia, ducking to avoid a stray branch before saying, "Well, I was thinking that we fly all the way to the Youkai Forest... there's... um... a... haunted house that I want to take you. Yeah, that's it! A haunted house!"

Jean rolled his eyes, "...I cannot believe that you're..."

"Shush! No more from you, Jean!" Marisa interrupted.

Jean sighed to himself, and the three continued their highly erratic, dangerous flight in silence, before they finally got to the foot of the Youkai Mountain. A Goddess in a farmer's outfit, wearing sunglasses and holding some kind of gem to boot, floated into sight, before spotting Marisa and quickly leaving again,with nary a word.

Patricia turned to the witch and asked, "What was up with her?"

"Ego problems. She's still sore after the spanking I gave her's." Marisa explained somewhat vaguely, "Don't worry, as long as you stick with me, Goddesses won't bother you here."

"Well, if even the deities won't bother us, this isn't gonna be much of a trial of guts, is it?" Patricia pointed out.

"Oh no..." Marisa calmly continued, "...the youkai in this haunted house... they do... horrible things... horrible things to little human girls..."

Jean rolled his eyes, "Yes, like not letting them steal books from their..."

"Will you be quiet, Jean?" Marisa asked, "You're spoiling the fun..."

Patricia was beginning to get an idea of what was going on, but decided to play along anyway, "Well, I'll take Aunty Marisa's word for it... so, let's go to the Youkai Forest!"

The trio sped up, and within minutes, they had reached their destination. The Youkai Forest was a wild, untamed area, the trees almost as tall as the Youkai Mountain itself. Unlike the destroyed Forest of Magic, which had mainly grasses thriving from the ash-ridden soil, the Youkai Forest had a healthy population of carnivorous plants among the leaf litter, which gladly demonstrated their capabilities on any creature foolish enough to wander too close.

Eventually, however, the three stopped at a suspiciously tamed area, an area which had almost certainly been cultivated. The house was beside a river, and had a far more aesthetically pleasing set of plant life surrounding it. The house itself also seemed fairly well-looked after, and almost certainly didn't belong to a feral youkai.

"This is your haunted house?" Patricia asked, her tone more than a little unconvinced.

"Yeah... I mean, such a prim and proper house in the middle of this spooky place... creepy, huh?" Marisa weakly replied, her smile barely containing her awkwardness.

"Huh? Isn't this the place where that short magician woman that comes on the shrine grounds often lives?" Patricia premeditatedly asked, deliberately trying to make Marisa squirm.

"N-no, of course not! It's a pair of human... uh... human-raping Youkai! You'd best hope they're hungry, because you don't want to be kept alive by them!" Marisa began to wave her arms around in an attempt to work up Patricia, "Ooooooh..."

Patricia decided to just cut to the chase, "...okay, let's do this thing. What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to go into the house, find the library, and then steal a book on Quantum Mechanical Magic. And if you get out with one, then you pass the test! Seems simple enough, right?" Marisa asked.

"What a surprise..." Patricia mused, "This certainly seems like something _you'd _come up with."

"What do you mean?" Marisa asked, "You can't be implying that I'm just using you to steal something from some people who are too wary of me breaking and entering for me to do it myself, are you?"

Patricia sighed, and decided to walk towards the door. She tentatively reached for the handle, and once she grabbed it, turned her hand. To her surprise, not only was the door unlocked, but after she instinctively hid, no-one came to the door to investigate.

After waiting in fear, Patricia finally decided to go in. If her hunches were correct, she didn't really need to fear the inhabitants of the house, however, she also knew they were ridiculously powerful. And unlike most residents of Gensokyo, at least one of the residents did not use Danmaku, rather altered the environment itself.

Walking down the dimly-lit hallway, she came across a door aptly labelled 'Library'. Patricia smiled anxiously, and opened the door, now more nervous than before. Walking down a set of stairs, she tried her best to remain calm as she heard the sound of people talking at the bottom.

"...hmm... so you think that this should be recited like this?" one voice said, before the other replied.

"...no, no, I think that the reciting isn't the important part... look, see, it's about manipulating probability. That's what magic entails..."

"When you put it like that, I guess we are making the infeasible spontaneous..." the first replied, seemingly able to understand something she didn't before.

Sounds of walking were heard, and the sound of footsteps became distant, which meant Patricia probably could continue her descent down the stairs. Entering the library, she saw two silhouettes walking away from her, their backs turned. After they went behind one of the many towering bookcases, Patricia decided to get to work.

She worked her search around where the two magicians went, and where she could search without them noticing. She managed to find books ranging in subjects from 'How to treat Alopecia Areata' to 'How to Yodel in Cantonese', however, the books on Quantum Mechanical Magic seemed to be the only book in the library that wasn't on a shelf.

...it was right about the time Patricia was thinking this that the two magicians passed the shelf Patricia was examining, and instantly spotted her.

One was fairly tall, and sported long, purple hair, with permanently glazed, purple eyes, while the other was much shorter, sporting a light salmon shade of hair, and sported a pair of completely closed eyes. Within the shorter one's hands, or, to be more accurate, overly-long sleeves, was a book titled 'The Magician's Guide to Manipulation of Quantum Particles'.

Patricia silently cursed to herself as she stammered in an attempt to justify her presence, "Look... I... I... I swear that I just wanted to borrow something..."

The taller one folded her arms, "...hm, that excuse reminds me of a certain human witch... Yutaka, do you know who this is?"

The shorter one smiled a particularly eerie grin, "Oh, I know who it is! It's the new Hakurei Miko. She can't be up to anything too suspicious... the Boss says she's a sweet girl..."

"Regardless of what 'the Boss' has to say, it doesn't explain why she's here..." the taller one replied.

Yutaka nodded, "Patchy does have a point... what are you doing here, Miss Hakurei?"

Patricia began to sweat, "Well... it's just... well... there's a... there's a book... I was... I was... interested in?"

"See, Patchy, she is just interested in our magic..." Yutaka calmly said, turning to the taller magician, who was still unconvinced.

"...okay, so why didn't she knock on the door?" Patchouli pointed out, "I can't believe she wants a book on magic for herself... I mean, she's a shrine maiden, she doesn't need to study for her powers... she must be working on behalf of someone..."

Yutaka nodded, "You do have a point... what book were you looking for, Miss Hakurei?"

Patricia smiled sheepishly, and pointed at the book in the vertically-challenged magician's hands. At this, the two magicians looked at one another, and nodded.

"Get out." Patchouli muttered.

"But I..." Patricia began to say, before Yutaka decided to invade her personal space, leaning up close to her.

"...Patchouli told you to get out, Miss Hakurei. We know who it is you're working for..." Yutaka calmly asserted.

"Uh... how about... how about... I fight you for the book?" Patricia suddenly declared, surprising herself, "...uh... yeah! How about we get into a spell-card based battle for the book! Is that fair?"

Patchouli folded her arms, and said, "Very well. It's two against one, so we'll go easy on you..."

Yutaka seemed a little surprised by her significant other's sudden competitive streak, and nodded, "Okay, here goes! Fire, Earth, and Water Sign: Hydrothermal Vent!"

The two magicians proceeded to summon three books to their aid, and the room began to shift so that the floor become covered in a rough, rocky layer. A sheet of blue, water-like bullets fired from Patchouli's books, and just as Patricia became used to avoiding the onslaught, Yutaka lifted her hands, causing plumes of steam and magma to fire from the ground.

Keeping as high up as possible, Patricia summoned two yin-yang orbs, and began to throw ofuda at the two magicians, who didn't even put a passing effort into dodging, instead taking the hits spectacularly well. They very belatedly responded to this by floating upwards themselves, and continued their attack.

The sheets of water-type bullets kept firing from Patchouli's books, and the rate at which they were fired increased exponentially, until finally, the spell-card was over, and Patricia wiped a sweat-bead from her forehead, glad the two seemed to have relatively merciful attacks. However, their apparent mercy was swiftly subverted, as Patchouli flew into the middle of the room in preparation for their next attack.

"Yutaka, are you ready?" Patchouli asked, and seemed to mouth something incredibly quickly to her partner, who floated nonchalantly to join her. Once she did, Patchouli continued, "...Sun, Moon, and Earth Sign: Gravitational Stability!"

Yutaka grinned, and moved outwards, so that she was orbiting Patchouli. Patchouli proceeded to form a great, glowing orb above herself, and Patricia felt herself being drawn towards the sphere, as if it was sucking her in. To make matters worse, Yutaka was firing bullets towards said orb, and was orbiting at such a speed that Patricia was finding it difficult to keep track of her. Eventually, pieces of the walls began to be drawn towards the miniature sun, meaning Patricia had to avoid both planned and unplanned attacks on her.

Although she was coping, Patricia was finding it exceptionally difficult to actually land a shot on either Patchouli or Yutaka... every shot she directed at Patchouli got sucked into her ever-growing artificial sun, and Yutaka was whizzing around at such an erratic pace that even her homing amulets were having a tough time hitting her.

Performing an aerial sidestep to avoid a piece of glass that was flying towards her, Patricia took a spell-card from her pocket, and was about to declare its name, however, the orbiting magician had clearly miscalculated her route, as she flew right into the miko, causing both the brunt of the assault and Patricia's futile attempts to harm Patchouli to stop.

The two fell from the air, moderately dazed from the impact, landing on the rocky ground, which due to the injury of Yutaka, swiftly reformed into the regular carpet. Patchouli looked towards the ground, and instantly stopped her attack, flying down to check on her partner.

Kneeling beside the magician, she asked, "Are you okay, Yutaka?"

However, instead of Yutaka answering, a young girl's voice spoke from above her, "...well, I don't know about her, but I'm just fine..."

Patchouli turned her head, to see Patricia standing over her with a set of 'persuasion needles' in her hand, and she knew full well what the next step was- to feel the same needles in her body.

Patricia somewhat mercilessly threw the needles at Patchouli at point-blank range, causing her to collapse, and she sighed to herself, "I wish I didn't have to reason with Youkai in such a violent way... but then again, Aunty Marisa wouldn't be impressed if I told her I just _asked _for the book..."

Prying the book from Yutaka's incapacitated body, Patricia began to walk towards the library's exit, however, she heard a muffled voice call out to her as she left.

"...Miss... Miss Hakurei... let me get the door for you." Yutaka mumbled, her face still stuck to the floor. After clumsily getting to her feet and dusting herself off, she mumbled, "...I was never one for the whole fighting thing... don't tell Patchy I did this, but I'll disable the never-ending stairs for you..."

Yutaka proceeded to catch up to Patricia, and the two walked to the exit together. Yutaka, who seemed to have worn her bizarrely static smile throughout the battle, continued to smile as she said, "Miss Hakurei, this library is outfitted with a system that means that if someone tries to leave with a book, the stairs leading you to the hallway become everlasting. We find confusion is the best way to outwit thieves..."

Patricia nodded, "...I see. So... you're just going to let me go?"

"My offensive magic is useless without Patchouli's help." Yutaka stated, her smile seeming to be somewhat genuine, "Plus, if it were up to me alone, I would have let you borrow the book anyway... it's good that Miss Kirisame is still so intellectually curious, if you ask me. But Patchouli is... well, opposed to freely lending out books. It's what it means to be married- you have to take the other side into consideration, you know what I'm saying? Okay, the system is disabled. Please leave as soon as possible, so I can put it back online before Patchy gets up..."

"Oh, of course." Patricia replied, and quickly said, "Thanks!" before high-tailing it out of the somewhat unsettling library and by extension, the somewhat unsettling house that contained it.

Marisa and Jean were waiting outside of the house, sitting on their levitating brooms as if they were bored. Marisa was the first to notice Patricia walking out of the house rather calmly with a book in her hand.

"So... you got a book after all? Well, I guess it was worth the wait..." Marisa remarked, and fired a shot from her finger to deal with an off-hand fairy before beckoning to Patricia, "Well, what are you waiting for? Show me what you got..."

Patricia gave the book to Marisa, and folded her arms, "I hope you appreciate this, getting it wasn't easy..."

"The Magician's Guide to Manipulation of Quantum Particles, eh?" Marisa read the title word-for-word, before continuing, "Hmm, seems pretty good. So, you took your time... did you need to to sneak past those horrible human-eating monsters of death?"

Patricia smirked a little, "I had to fight them for it..."

Jean turned to Marisa in shock, and suddenly spoke up in a rather angered tone, "MARISA! Patricia could have been seriously hurt! Why would you send her to do this just to steal a book for you?"

"But she'd be fine..." Marisa shrugged off Jean's understandable concern, "...I mean, she's the new Hakurei Miko! Reimu was always the 'boring invincible hero' type, Patricia over here is just the same..."

Jean didn't appreciate the witch's irreverent attitude, and muttered, "Just because you were not careful as a child does not mean Patricia should be casually put in danger..."

"Of course it does!" Marisa replied, totally ignoring the man's speech, "You didn't mind, did ya, Patricia?"

"Well, it was dangerous, but... admittedly, it was quite fun." Patricia said, smiling a little at the memory of her brief adrenaline rush.

"See, Patricia's totally cool with it!" Marisa gloated, "Thanks for sticking up for your cool Aunty Marisa, Patty!"

Patricia rolled her eyes at the fact she was being treated like a child, and Jean sighed, conceding to his somewhat obnoxious friend, "I guess if Patricia enjoyed it, there isn't an issue..."

Patricia looked to the forty-three year-old man... his under-eyes were creased, his cheek-bones emphasising his slightly wrinkled face. His hat and hair very nearly hid it, but the man's forehead had rather prominent frown-lines... however, the thing that Patricia noticed more than anything was the slight smile on his face- it was not much in terms of mouth movement, but his eyes seemed to do all the smiling for him- the smile which seemed to indicate that yes, he was rather proud of her. While Marisa clearly saw this experience as an opportunity to get a free book, Jean... he seemed to have genuinely bought the idea that this was some sort of coming-of-age challenge... to some extent. He silently gestured to Marisa, moving his arms towards the canopy of the Youkai Forest.

Marisa nodded, and said, "Come on, kiddo, let's get out of here. Your Uncle Jean wants to give you something for stealing the book- I mean, passing the trial of guts."

"What is it, Uncle Jean?" Patricia asked, now rather excited to know the two indeed _were _intending on showing her more than just a free fight.

The man tapped his nose, "Ah, it's a secret for now..." Jean clicked his heels, and pulled back on his broom, shooting himself upwards at break-neck speed.

Marisa smirked to herself, "Yeah, we have to give that slow-poke a head start so he doesn't feel too bad when we beat him home... I'll cook ya some bracket fungus soup when we get back, 'kay?"

Marisa then proceeded to set off on her broomstick herself, leaving Patricia to kick herself off the ground in silence, defying gravity at the highest speed possible for a human being of her stature.

The three zoomed through Gensokyo, occasionally shooting down the odd fairy, and made it to Marisa's house in the same three pieces they were in to begin with. Marisa instantly got to the kitchen, and shouted, "Okay, tea's on! Jean, get the gift, and then go and fetch me some bracket fungus with Patricia!"

Jean barely had time to take his shoes off, and he simply shrugged, "Okay... I thought you would want to see Patricia receive the gift, though..."

"Nah, you two need some alone time. It's okay, I know that Patricia likes you better..." Marisa's disembodied voice called from the kitchen.

Jean sighed, and looked at Patricia, "...I wish she wouldn't say things like that in front of you..."

Patricia shrugged her shoulders, "It's fine. You get the thing, I'll just wait here..."

Jean nodded, and quickly ran upstairs, and within a minute, returned with an object hidden under his cloak. He quietly said, "Let's go..."

Marisa, who seemed to have heard Jean despite his efforts to be quiet, shouted from the kitchen, "See ya later!"

Jean and Patricia decided to go for a relatively leisurely walk through the Forest of Magic, a certain change in style to the antics of their day so far. Although there wasn't much in the way of beautiful scenery in the forest, there was certainly a lot of grass, and a lot of dead-wood. And wherever there was dead-wood, there was bracket fungus. It wasn't a far walk before Jean had found a large enough growth of bracket fungus to feed the three of them.

Jean snapped the fungal growth from the rotted log in front of him, and then sat down on said log, "Patricia, I think it is time I gave you the present..."

Patricia smiled, before quickly becoming respectful so as to not seem _too _materialistic, "...thanks, Uncle Jean..."

"Hey, you don't even know what it is yet!" Jean replied, laughing a little, before taking the object out of his cloak. In his hand was an octagonal prism made of wood, one face being blank, while the other had a blue, fluorescent circle in the middle of it.

Patricia took the object, and said, "...is this one of those things you and Marisa use for your more powerful attacks?" as she looked at the blue circle with curiosity.

"DO NOT LOOK AT THAT END!" Jean frantically said, turning the prism around in Patricia's hand, "...sorry, it's just... that's the end it fires out of. Yes, it is what Marisa calls a 'mini-hakkero'. It can release powerful lasers from it if you know what to do with it..."

"...but... but I don't understand... why are you giving this to me? What do you think I can do with this?" Patricia asked.

"Oh..." Jean mused, "...well, Patricia, you're very dear to me, and... and I think it would be good for you to have this... Marisa may have seemed like she didn't want to give this to you, but she was actually the one who came up with the idea..."

Patricia tilted her head slightly, "Huh? What made her think of doing that?"

"I think she is a little jealous of Reimu..." Jean said, putting her arm around Patricia, "...she sees you, and she probably thinks she won't have something like that... after all, you've grown up to be a fine young woman, Patricia... Reimu should be proud of you..."

"Mum... I mean, Reimu, she doesn't seem all that proud of me..." Patricia mused, "...she never seems satisfied with how much I do..."

"But she does love you..." Jean replied, "I know, because I love you, and I haven't raised you anywhere near as much as Reimu... remember, Reimu is very strange in how she cares for people..."

"Just like what that youkai wrote about her in his book?" Patricia asked.

Jean smiled to himself, "Yes, just like the youkai man says. She is a... what was it... a tsundere? Now, you don't have to show Reimu the gift I gave you, because she might take it off you, but at least you can go and tell her that you beat a pair of youkai in a fight today, eh?"

"Yeah... yeah, I can." Patricia said, squeezing Jean slightly, "Thanks, Uncle Jean. So, how does this thing work?"

"Well... I shall show you what Marisa first taught me, shall I?" Jean began to say, and then let go of Patricia, standing up and taking the hakkero, "...well, you have to treat the object with love, and mean it with all your heart... and then, when that's done..."

_...Jean continued to explain the process required to unleash a one-point-twenty-one gigawatt, seven-coloured laser of love from a tiny wooden device to the young shrine maiden, who listened to the man intently, almost like she had totally forgotten that they had gone out to pick some food for Marisa..._

_...however, the two eventually _did _remember, and went back to Marisa's house with bracket fungus, rock-salt, and earthworms for taste, and Marisa cooked up the disgusting-on-paper, delicious-in-mouth speciality dish- Bracket Fungus Soup._

_While Gensokyo seemed to be as lacking in chaos as ever, unbeknownst to Patricia, Marisa, and Jean, a little piece of the laws of thermodynamics was coming back into place... yes, a spark of entropy was about to invade Gensokyo, potentially restoring it to its former chaotic state, if only temporarily..._

Author's Note: I'M BACK! AND WRITING A SIDE SERIES!

Yes, I said I'd quit the Touhou fanfiction circle. Yes, I said I'd quit. But... but... I just... I just couldn't leave it alone! Here you are, here's a new story. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter... this is gonna be fun to write, I've already plotted the entire thing ahead of time. That's what a decent hiatus does to you... clarifies your mind.

It's good to be back.


	2. 02: The Moderately Magnificent Mimicker

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 2- The Moderately Magnificent Mimicker**

_Hakurei Shrine, just after Patricia had left the scene..._

"See ya later, Reimu! Have a fun day!" Patricia Hakurei shouted to Reimu, flying away slowly, before turning around and speeding up so as to catch up to her 'Aunty Marisa'.

Reimu looked on, and waited until Patricia was the size of a pinhead in her view before turning away from her herself, muttering, "Yeah, I'm gonna have lots of fun sitting around in a house on my own..."

The mild whirring sound which had constantly accompanied the air in the Hakurei Shrine's territory suddenly became apparent to Reimu, and she looked up at the source... the mansion which seemed to eternally belch out two great plumes of fire from its underside, and the sight caused her to soliloquise, "...hm, maybe I should torment him for a bit..."

Reimu floated up to the massive mass of brick, metal, rocket fuel, and countless pointless possessions, and decided to check if her 'sky-neighbours' were in. Instead of knocking on the door, like a polite person, Reimu decided to look into the mansion from the front window, and the resulting images that reached her retina, and by proxy, her brain, were somewhat confusing to the shrine maiden...

Standing in the foyer was a tall, youkai man with somewhat long, black, spiky hair, and a certain blonde-haired kitsune wearing a rather baggy, black cloak was standing next to him... these two people belonged here, however, what was off was the person standing opposite to them... for whatever reason, the ever-classy, self-assured Border Youkai was wearing her trademark smirk, and seemed to be calmly discussing matters with the two. While Reimu couldn't quite hear what they were saying, it was clear the man was somewhat unnerved by Yukari's speech, despite the relatively non-aggressive expression on her face.

Yukari pointed at Ran for a moment, and then hid her face with a fan, before disappearing into a gap. Reimu decided that now would be the best time to knock the door, however, just as Yukari had completely removed herself from view, her voice made itself apparent behind the shrine maiden.

"Well, hello there, Reimu." Yukari greeted, a slight hint of irritation in her voice, "It's not nice to snoop, is it?"

Reimu jumped out of her skin, and turned to face the Border Youkai, "Oh! H-hello, Yukari...I didn't notice you there..."

"Oh, is that so?" Yukari replied, every word's inflexion demonstrating how little she bought the priestess' excuse, "Well, you must be very busy if you're checking the windows for... integrity. What a devoted miko..."

Reimu looked away from Yukari with a certain indignation, "Just... shut up and leave me alone. Unless you have a problem with what I've done, would you kindly leave me alone?"

"Oh... I see." Yukari opened her parasol, and suddenly let gravity have its way with her, descending to Earth in a manner similar to Mary Poppins, "...good job with your parenting, by the way. You know, your successor may well be ready to deal with an incident soon enough... we'll have to see what comes up..."

Reimu rolled her eyes, opened her mouth to say something in response, but by the time she made any noise pertaining to speech, Yukari had already long since disappeared, seemingly while Reimu wasn't looking. Deciding that she'd do what she had resolved to do to kill boredom in the first place, she moved in front of the floating mansion's door and pressed the button to the side of it.

A ringing sound was heard, and after a very short wait, the door opened, revealing the black-haired man. His facial expression seemed a little worried, however, it quickly changed to an almost forced-looking smile, "Hello there, Reimu! What brings you here?"

"I'm bored..." Reimu muttered, "...I... uh... just thought I'd come over..."

The man's smile seemed to become a little more meaningful, as if something had picked up his mood, "...you were bored, so you decided to come here? That means you associate me with entertainment! That means my fake incident was a success! I'm glad you enjoyed it..."

Reimu rolled her eyes, "Don't infer _that _much from it..."

The man's enthusiasm refused to be quelled, however, and he somewhat joyfully said, "Come on in, Reimu..."

Reimu floated into the doorway, before landing in the foyer. The youkai man closed the door behind her, and he clapped his hands excitedly, saying, "Okay, I'll just put some tea on..." before rushing out of the foyer. After a pause, his voice was heard shouting, "Hey, Chen! Reimu's come over, you wanna come down?"

Reimu shrugged her shoulders, and walked towards the sofas that surrounded the foyer's fireplace... Ran was sitting there, somewhat quiet, her face looking like one that didn't want to be disturbed. Despite the painfully awkward atmosphere, Reimu decided to ask the kitsune the question on her mind, while the overly-enthusiastic mimicker was away.

"So... what was Yukari doing over here?" Reimu quietly asked the fox, "...and why is Dawitsu acting like nothing's happened?"

Ran's face briefly looked panicked, however, she quickly composed herself, "It's... nothing important. Yukari was just... discussing matters relating to... well..." Ran finally decided to use anger as an excuse to not tell her, and said, "...it's none of your business, alright?"

"Hey, as far as I know, you guys could be plotting something together!" Reimu pointed out.

"Yukari doesn't even _like_ the ma- I mean, Dawitsu, why would she work with him?" Ran equally pointed out, "Not only that, but what would motivate Yukari to plot anything... if you wish to know, Yukari was actually discussing the lack of trouble-makers in Gensokyo... she was asking us if we were interested in a friendly fight... for the good old days. She had heard about what he had done for you and Marisa, and she wanted to have a fight herself..."

"Hm?" Reimu seemed quite confused by this story, "So... why didn't you break into a fight?"

"Dawitsu didn't want to get hurt..." Ran replied, "...given he was quite badly injured after his fight with you, I would be avoiding Yukari too..."

Reimu sniggered to herself, "Heh, you didn't get injured, and your part was _very _important. I bet Dawitsu has a _lot _of fun with that little outfit you wore..."

Ran folded her arms, and said, "For your information, he does! At least I'm having sex, which is more than can be said for you..."

It was at about this moment the rather cheerful, youthful-looking cat youkai of the mansion skipped into the room, holding a set of teacups, only to have her cheerful expression swiftly change to an embarrassed one upon hearing her mistress' last piece of dialogue.

Chen blushed, and mumbled in a slightly bitter tone, "Boy, do they have sex... here's your tea..."

The nekomata placed the cups of tea on the nearest coffee tables to their respective drinkers, and left an extra two on another coffee table, before sitting on the sofa immediately in front of it.

Reimu picked up the tea and looked into it before smirking a little... it was strawberry tea, and judging by the smell... it had sugar added. If there was one thing she could credit Dawitsu for, it was being a sad enough loser to memorise things like tea preferences... although that may have been something to do with his nationality.

Taking a sip before burning her tongue and putting the tea back down, Reimu sat back on her sofa, and asked, "So, why isn't Dawitsu joining us?"

"He's just sorting something out..." Ran answered swiftly, "...just... matters in his office. He'll be here soon enough..."

Chen was clearly still mortified after overhearing Ran discussing her decidedly private matters with a visitor, and stared into her tea quietly, before saying, "Dawi said he'd be down in a minute when he had me make tea..."

Reimu was about to reply, however, a loud crashing noise was heard from above the foyer, followed by the sound of lasers being fired, finally followed up by a rather strange, artificial-sounding noise, some sort of clicking, before one last crashing sound.

After about a minute's wait, Dawitsu returned to the foyer, ash on his face and a tear on his blue cloak. Walking towards the sofas, he asked in a weak tone attempting to masquerade as a cheerful one, "So, did you make us tea like I asked, Chen?"

Chen nodded eagerly, "Of course, Dawi! What happened up there?"

Ran decided to answer, but Dawitsu got there first, "...oh, minor... failed attack test. I was trying to perfect a cluster bomb, you see... and I guess I forgot to install the pin, heh heh..."

Reimu's eyes narrowed... everything Ran and Dawitsu was saying sounded like some kind of lame excuse... they were definitely covering something up. Given that both of them were quite the incident causers, or at the very least, accomplices, Reimu's instincts instantly set upon the two.

"Okay, you two, tell me what's up." Reimu bluntly said, "I guess I've still got it... I was only intending on visiting you guys, but I stumbled upon Yukari, and you seem to be hiding something. Don't you know that I always accidentally find out what's going on around here?"

Dawitsu laughed nervously, "Look, honestly, Reimu, I know that I... have a bit of a track record with these things, but... I think your incident compass is a little wonky. It isn't me this time..."

Reimu rolled her eyes, "Look, you're not convincing me. Ran said that Yukari was here because of some lame reason... what was it? Wanting a little nostalgia herself? She's the freakin' Border Youkai, I know she's lying..."

Chen cocked her head, "Huh? Yukari was here?"

Reimu sighed, almost feeling sorry for the utterly terrible liars, "Okay, now I know something's wrong... I mean, you're withholding information from Chen. Chen was highly involved in your fake incident, so what's the deal with keeping her in the dark..."

Dawitsu's face denoted a clear uneasiness, and after another session of weak, nervous laughter, he finally came to a stammering confession, "Okay... okay, I'll tell you! Yukari was... Yukari was concerned about the situation in the underground..."

"The Underground?" Reimu's asked, her interest piqued, "What's going on down there?"

"Apparently someone's causing some serious unrest down there..." Dawitsu said, taking a sip of his tea before continuing, "Yeah, Yukari wanted to see the situation, however she's unable to... you know, due to the restrictions?"

"But you're an above-ground youkai too..." Reimu pointed out, "...how would you help?"

Dawitsu smiled, and clicked his fingers, "...well, Miss Hakurei, I may be classified as such, but my miniature clones... they're very much in the grey area. I got them to scout for me when gathering mimicry information on the underground youkai... well, they were also acting as Marisa's options at the time, too, but... oh my, isn't that nostalgic? Marisa was a cute girl back then, wasn't she?"

Ran gave her husband a somewhat irritated look, and Reimu slouched a little in her seat, muttering, "Can you please get to the point?"

"One minute, Missy..." Dawitsu quickly replied, "...anyway, I've attached what the outside world calls 'video cameras' to a troop of my height-deficient clones, and I've connected them to a wireless feed set up by Yukari... the noise upstairs was me sending a few of them out. With her set-up, and my clones doing the monkey work, we'll be able to check up on the situation. Hell, my clones may be well-equipped enough to handle the unrest themselves!"

Reimu was beginning to see holes in this story, "Okay, smart guy, why didn't Yukari go to Patricia about this? She was the one who wanted me to adopt a successor, you'd think she'd know the significance of her as an incident solver..."

"Oh, well... Yukari said she was too young..." Dawitsu's smile became somewhat condescending, and he flicked a strand of his hair effeminately before whispering, "...too... fragile, untrained, and weak to go just yet. I mean, the youkai of the underground are..."

"UNACCEPTABLE!" Reimu stood up and shouted, a motherly attitude suddenly overcoming her, "HOW DARE YUKARI, THINKING I'M DOING A BAD JOB OF TRAINING HER!"

Ran smiled in an attempt to defuse the situation, "...I'm sure Yukari is only doing it because she doesn't want the younger miko to die before she can be there to help Genso..."

"SHUT UP, YOU RANDY EXCUSE OF A KITSUNE!" Reimu screamed, "Okay, screw you, I'm gonna make Patricia go down there myself, just you see..."

Dawitsu remained seated, and he calmly said, "...see, this is why Yukari didn't want you to know... her plan is very delicate, and if you act like a spanner in the works, things could turn out for the worse..."

Reimu put her hands on her hips, "Just tell me, smartass, how many times has my way of solving incidents failed?"

Dawitsu sighed to himself, "...none."

"...so, who's way is better?" Reimu rhetorically asked, "You're not even an incident solver! You're not even a playable character!"

Dawitsu hung his head in shame, and Ran stood up, saying, "If you're going to shout, we're going to have to ask you to leave."

"Fine!" Reimu shouted, "But I'm not gonna be quiet about this! You just wait and see! Next time Yukari checks her little 'video feed', she's gonna see my Patricia kicking butt! And that'll teach you for saying I'm a bad teacher! You'll see!"

Reimu proceeded to stamp out of the house, slamming the door hard enough to make one of the foyer's many paintings to fall off of its allocated space on the wall. Chen sipped her tea, and quietly said, "...did I do well?"

Dawitsu grinned, "Yeah, we all did well... yeah, Reimu reacted exactly as Yukari said... I wonder why she didn't just decide to tell Reimu herself, though..."

Ran shrugged her shoulders, "Yukari is never one to be direct... hundreds of years under her command, and most of the time, it was Zenki and Goki who relayed her commands to me..."

Dawitsu shrugged, "I guess..." the youkai stood up, and his eyes met Ran's, "...I love you so much, you know that? We make a great team..."

The two proceeded to hug each other, leaving Chen to finish off her tea, before leaving in mild disgust at the sickening pair of sweethearts...

_Marisa's House, the Forest of Magic, seven o'clock, post-meridian_

Marisa, Jean, and Patricia were just about done eating the Bracket Fungus Soup that the former had worked rather hard on, and each put down their eating utensils with satisfaction, letting out a rather content 'Ah'.

"I never realised earthworms were the secret ingredient to the soup, Aunty Marisa..." Patricia spoke up first, "I mean, I've always liked it, but to have something so... horrible-sounding in it, it's just..."

Marisa shrugged her shoulders, "Ah, food isn't about looks... it all goes down as a disgusting mess anyway. Nah, it's about the taste... and hey, earthworms are easy to find if you know how to charm 'em..."

Patricia turned to Jean, "So that's what that 'tapping on the ground' thing was all about?"

Jean nodded, "It is difficult, but you have to make it seem like there is an earthquake going on. Once that happens, they crawl out!"

Marisa rolled her eyes, "Such interesting conversations we have, eh? This world sure is boring at the moment... not like the glory days, I tell ya..."

Jean decided to partake in some eye-rolling himself, and responded with, "...you mean the glory days in which everything was trying to kill us?"

"Well... that still happens, it's just..." Marisa sighed, "There's no real 'visionary' youkai out there any more, know what I'm saying?"

Patricia was beginning to get rather tired of Marisa and Reimu's constant talks of 'the glory days', days in which they claimed you had to solve incidents left, right, and centre, because all youkai wanted to do was cause them, for whatever contrived reason. Apparently there were some things that were guaranteed by nature, like a seventy-yearly incident involving possessed flowers, however, Patricia wasn't going to get to participate in such a thing... no, it'd have to be her successor... or her successor's successor... that was a scary thought. Over in Gensokyo, humans were like what tiny mayflies were to the outside world... they didn't live anywhere near as long as the creatures that made the world what it was.

Before Patricia could depress herself with pondering about her existential meaninglessness, she decided to call it a day and head home.

"Aunty Marisa... Uncle Jean, I was thinking of heading home..." Patricia said, getting out her hakkero, "Thanks for the gift, Aunty Marisa. Uncle Jean said you wanted me to have this too..."

Marisa grinned, saying, "Well, I just wanna see how jealous Reimu will be when she sees her sheltered little shrine maiden firing Master Sparks..."

"Well, I'll wait until I'm older before I show it off to Mum..." Patricia replied, and after a short pause, said, "...uh, I mean, Reimu. Thanks for showing me how it works, Uncle Jean..."

"It is no problem..." Jean replied, "Just remember not to bring it to your first date, or you may confess your love before blasting the area apart..."

Patricia blushed a little, "...Uncle Jean, I'm too young for that stupid stuff..."

"This is true." Jean replied, "I'll take you home, shall I..."

Marisa stood up, "Oh no you don't! We're all going together!"

Patricia shrugged her shoulders, not particularly bothered about who escorted her, "Whatever you guys want, I should be fine taking myself home..."

In the end, the three decided to return to the Hakurei Shrine together. As a party of three, practically all youkai in the forest stood next to no chance against them, and the feral youkai seemed to have developed a knowledge of whether or not humans were well-equipped or not... in other words, they knew who not to attack.

Once the three got to the Hakurei Shrine, they knocked on the door of the main building, and after a very short wait, the door erratically opened, with an equally erratic Reimu at the door, speaking in a highly erratic tone.

"Okay thanks for taking care of Patty while I was gone you can go away now thanks." Reimu very hurriedly said to the three, dragging Patricia into the house and shutting the door behind them.

Patricia was understandably rather confused by her adoptive mother's strange behaviour, and sheepishly called out to Marisa and Jean, "See you later!"

After a call from behind the door returned such sentiments, Patricia asked, "Okay, what's all this... weirdness about? I didn't get to say goodbye to Aunty Marisa and Uncle Jean proper..."

"...will you just be quiet for a moment?" Reimu snapped, stopping the teenager in her tracks.

"But I..."

"...listen, would you?" Reimu continued, ignoring Patricia's concerns, "...hey, you know that creep, Dawitsu?"

"Yeah? What about him?" Patricia asked.

"He thinks you're not ready to deal with an incident..." Reimu said, "...he's so stupid... thinks he can keep an incident to himself... though I guess Yukari's even stupider for thinking he could keep her secret..."

Patricia was trying to decipher any meaning from this speech, but was finding it rather difficult, "...in order for me to glean information from your mouth-noises, I need you to make the context clear..."

"Hey, less of the sarcasm, kiddo!" Reimu replied, "Basically, Yukari thinks an incident's going on underground..."

"...oh yeah, I heard her mention something about that..." Patricia mused, "Oh, but she said it was fine for the time being..."

"W-w-w-when did she tell you this?" Reimu stammered, shocked at how she was left out of the loop, "What did she say?"

"Oh, it was about a week ago..." Patricia replied, "...when you were sleeping. She just said that I may have to be prepared, but... she returned later, saying it was fine..."

Reimu growled to herself, regressing into a petulant teenager, "Well, I'm revoking that right now! Yukari is withholding information, I tell you! She's getting that Dawitsu creeper to send his kooky little henchmen into the underground to check on the situation... but I won't allow that!"

"W-why not?" Patricia asked, quite shocked to see Reimu acting so... childishly.

"Because she got him to do that because she thinks you're not good enough!" Reimu shouted, "She thinks I haven't trained you well enough! You don't wanna be called a weakling by Yukari, do you?"

Patricia was somewhat sceptical, surprisingly being the more level-headed of the two miko, "Are you sure you didn't just misunderstand what Dawitsu had to say?"

"No, he said that Yukari thinks it's too dangerous for you!" Reimu stamped on the floor, "Ha! What a dork! You've got to prove him wrong! Prove Yukari wrong! Come on, this is a proper opportunity to solve an incident! You can't let something like this pass! It's what I've been training you for all these years! You can't let my effort go to waste!"

Patricia thought about the situation for a moment, before she made a tiny little smile on her youthful face, "...well, I _did _beat two magician youkai at once in a danmaku battle today... so perhaps I can handle this..."

"No perhaps! You _can _handle this!" Reimu said, "Hey, consider yourself lucky! My predecessor was dead before I was your age, I had to train myself! Do you think I just sat at home and waited for an incident to come to me?"

"Yukari said your first incident solution was due to the shrine being destroyed, so, yeah, I think you did..." Patricia rather disrespectfully pointed out.

"Hmph! Well, at least I did something when the opportunity called! And this is that opportunity! Come on, Patricia, make your mother proud!" Reimu shouted, before quickly noticing her error, "...um... make... make _me_ proud!"

Patricia's heart softened a little to Reimu's demands after her Freudian Slip... and she decided that actually, there wasn't any reason not to go underground and check out the potential incident for herself.

"Why not?" Patricia said, "You're right, Reimu. This opportunity may not arise again for while, so I might as well strike while the iron's hot, eh?"

Reimu hugged her adoptive daughter tightly, and said, "That's my girl! I knew you'd make me proud and show those nay-sayers a thing or two!"

Patricia wasn't prepared enough for the hug to even respond, and simply received the hug, too constricted to move her arms and return it...

_The Palace of the Earth Spirits, the Underground, just after the former events_

Satori Komeiji... the woman even the evil spirits feared, famous for both her ability to read minds and her reclusive nature. Although many residents of the underground city had their theories about what Satori did with her day, the fact was, she mostly sat around her palace, talking to her countless pets in an overly sweet, loving voice. While she came off as a snide, bored, cynical misanthrope to the majority of people, beneath her icy exterior was a very, very soft heart indeed.

At the moment, she was feeding her various non-youkai corvid pets, throwing down some kind of birdseed for the crows and ravens in her aviary, reading the relatively simple minds of the creatures with a blank expression. However, her peaceful moment was interrupted as the birds began to give off vibes of fear, and they instinctively flew away from the ground, landing on the various perches Satori left for them. The other animals seemed to be panicked, and a whole host of Satori's pets suddenly ran past her, each one's mind saying something along the lines of 'Run! It's a monster!'.

Satori scowled, her emotions slightly tweaking. She spoke aloud for once, and said, "Who's there? I'll have you know, I don't take kindly to you harming my pets..."

A response came in the form of several injured fairies flying Satori's way, before being followed by a massive, blue-white laser. The beam shot past Satori, who instinctively dodged, before she asked, "Who... who are you?"

A monotonous, almost emotionless voice echoed through the palace, "I am here to cause chaos. This is my duty. I am here to break the peace. Sources indicate that you are a feared and revered individual. You are a suitable target to attack."

"...huh? Where... where are you?" Satori asked, looking around in disorientation.

A whirring sound was heard, and finally, the voice returned, much closer to Satori's ears. The youkai turned around to see an almost transparent creature, who instantly slapped Satori with the back of its ghostly hand.

"I am located in front of you." the creature stated as Satori fell to the floor.

Satori opened her third eye, and tried to remain calm, "I... I... wait... I can't... I can't..."

"Your highly advanced Ampullae of Lorenzini are not compatible with my methods of processing outer stimuli." the creature declared, and proceeded to pick Satori up by the throat.

"W-what do you want?" Satori struggled to ask.

"I do not desire anything from you." the creature mused, "However, I wish to defeat you, and flaunt my defeat to the residents of the Underground, so as to inspire fear within them. Are you willing to comply?"

Satori fired a bullet at the ghostly silhouette, causing it to flinch and let her go. She proceeded to float into the air, and said, "Very well, you strange creature... Recollection: Terrible Souvenir!"

The silhouette moved as Satori fired a wave of bullets, followed by a spiral of lasers that pegged the creature in one spot. However, after waiting for as short as it could allow, the creature responded with its own attack.

"Appropriate counter attack has been determined. Memory Sign: Brain Fingerprint!" the creature stated, and released several green bullets outwards.

The silhouette dodged, dipped, ducked, dived, and dodged as it followed up its relatively paltry attack with several green orbs which slowed down in mid-air and disappeared. Satori's eyes widened, as she attempted to read the creature's mind in an attempt to confirm her fears... however, once again, she was fruitless.

...not that her fears were not confirmed in some way. The creature proceeded to say, "Detonation of cloaked bullets initiated."

With this, the orbs which had disappeared suddenly reappeared, this time far greater in size, and covering the majority of the battlefield. The creature's field of vision was obscured by the sheer amount of light, however, once the attack ended, it saw its target spiralling out of the air like a poorly-swatted fly.

The ghostly figure floated along the floor, and picked up the downed Satori. After a brief wait, it muttered, "Defeat of Satori Komeiji was a success. Awaiting return of powerful pets, known by nicknames 'Orin' and 'Okuu'."

_The ghostly figure floated through the Palace of the Earth Spirits, occasionally shooting a casual laser to make the place look a little destroyed. It eventually took rest in an area it had deliberately made into a pile of shattered stained glass, and simply sat, holding the incapacitated Satori the entire time..._

_Whatever the creature was, it seemed to have no aim, purpose, or agenda... thus far, all it had left in its wake was a pointlessly large amount of destruction... what did it want? It didn't seem all too sure itself..._

Author's Note: Yeah, it isn't _too _obvious what's going on yet, is it? I'm _trying _to confuse you guys, I swear... ha, I'm bad at this, I really am...

Also, this chapter is laughably short, come to think of it...


	3. 03: The Journey Begins

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 3- The Journey Begins**

_Hakurei Shrine, seven o'clock ante-meridian the next day_

The morning came to the Hakurei Shrine rather quickly, and under the command of Reimu, Patricia had decided to wait until the morning to go on her first proper incident solution journey. Although she had solved a couple of minor incidents, they were closer to small-scale disputes than actual trouble. When Patricia opened her eyes, she was grateful of the sleep Reimu had forced upon her, and she proceeded to make herself the usual breakfast of Miso Soup, albeit in a highly rushed manner.

Once she was done with eating, she decided to set out for the Underground, however, a voice called out to her before she could exit the shrine's main building.

"Hey, kiddo, you'd best not be leaving without your Gohei..." Reimu's voice called from another room, before said shrine maiden entered the room Patricia was in, a tired look on her face, "What if an enemy comes up close to you? You need something to whack 'em with..."

Patricia smiled sheepishly, and said, "Oh... I guess you're right... what are you doing up so early?"

Reimu's face seemed to light up a little, "Well, little Patty, it's your first proper incident! I had to say goodbye to you..."

Patricia blushed at the fact she had been called 'little', and picked up her Gohei from next to her futon, "...well... thanks, I guess..."

Reimu walked up to Patricia, and looked down at her protégée, before quickly straightening out Patricia's collar, and flattening out a strand of her hair that was sticking up.

Finally, she was satisfied, and said, "There, all better. Go get 'em, Patricia! I'm proud of my little girl!"

Patricia was surprised at how openly encouraging her adoptive mother was being. Looking at her face, Patricia was sure she saw a tear forming at her eyes... was this really the same Reimu that forced her to practice flight every day from her tenth birthday through to her eleventh? It was strange to see her ruthless mentor behaving in such a... soft manner.

"...I... I don't know what to say..." Patricia replied, before she decided on something, "...I... I hope I can do as well as you've trained me..."

Reimu smiled a bizarre, uncharacteristic smile, and her eyes more visibly welled up, before she hugged her adoptive daughter, saying, "Be careful, okay... if you think you could die, run away, don't think you're letting me down if you do..."

"But I thought you said yesterday..." Patricia began to say, but Reimu cut her off.

"Look, if it turns out that dork and Yukari are right, and you aren't ready, the last thing I'd want is for you to die trying to prove them wrong..." Reimu replied, letting go of her successor, "...I was a little over-excited yesterday, but ultimately, I wouldn't want you to get hurt... at least, not within reason... just because I've said you're allowed to run away doesn't mean you should run just for breaking a nail, got it?"

Patricia's uneasiness subsided... this was the Reimu she knew and loved, "...oh, don't worry, it'll take something pretty big to scare me away..."

"That's the spirit!" Reimu shouted, "Now, go! Go out there and show that trouble-maker in the Underground the reason no-one messes with the incident resolvers!"

Patricia performed a little salute, and said, "Sure thing, Reimu! See you when I get back!"

With that said, Patricia checked her pocket for her mini-hakkero, and sped out of the door, not even bothering to close it. Reimu looked through the door frame at her successor, and for a moment, looked anxious, before mumbling, "...no, she'll... she'll be fine..."

Meanwhile, Patricia had already decided the best way to go was up, where she had a better vantage point to look through Gensokyo... where was the entrance to the Underground again? It was... via a cave in the Youkai Mountain, a 'wind tunnel'. It was most likely easy enough to find...

Looking to her right, she saw the floating mansion that had obscured her view of sky for all of her life, and decided that she should start flying away from the shrine if she didn't want to be pestered by Dawitsu or his residents.

After flying in the general direction of the Youkai mountain for about five minutes, she finally came across the fairies which seemed to act as an incident 'litmus test'- wherever they were was usually an area on the way to the causer of an incident... or at least, that's what both Reimu and 'Aunty Marisa' had told her.

After shooting down a few fairies on the 'pathetic' end of the strength spectrum, Patricia summoned two yin-yang orbs, and began to fire homing amulets. It was about at this time that, much to her annoyance, she found out that she had not avoided being pestered by Dawitsu...

The tengu lookalike flew, first into her peripheral vision, before out and out flying backwards in front of her. He smiled awkwardly at the young girl, saying, "Hello, Miss Hakurei! What a coincidence that I've come across you all the way up here... what are you up to?"

Patricia thought of a response that wouldn't imply she was investigating an incident, as the last person she needed was Dawitsu trying to stop her...

"...I'm just... practising a little high-altitude flight, you know..." Patricia lied unconvincingly, before realising she could just as easily call him out, "...actually, what are you doing up here at quarter past seven in the morning?"

"I'm a teacher in the human village..." Dawitsu pointed out, "...I'm on my way to school..."

"Then why are you heading in the wrong direction?" Patricia further pointed out.

"Oh, okay, I admit it!" Dawitsu laughed a little to himself before he slowed down his flight so that he was flying next to her, "I saw you out of my window, and I just couldn't help but say hi, know what I'm saying? Say, I've been up to a lot since the last time we spoke..."

Patricia was beginning to realise this was probably going to take a while... and time really was of the essence. She had wasted enough time getting sleep for this adventure, and now Dawitsu was holding her up...

"Look, I need to be going..." Patricia said in an attempt to escape from the conversation, however, Dawitsu seemed intent on keeping her a prisoner.

"But I thought you were just practising high-altitude flight... it show's you're proficient if you can keep calm and talk up here..." Dawitsu stopped to breath, before launching himself into a terminally boring ramble, "You know, I've been working on a cool robot called 'the Gizoid', it's looking great... it's gonna be able to mimic things that mere biotics like you and I can't... oh, and I think Ran and I are gonna throw a party at the end of this week, feel free to come along, although I won't let you have the sake, 'cos you're just a kid..."

Patricia tried to get a word in, "Can you please..."

"...say, Patricia, has Reimu taught you any Science or English Literature? You should consider learning some stuff at Keine's school..." Dawitsu continued to ramble, "You know, there's a class which is your age... say, there's a few boys over there your age, perhaps you could get with one of them! Unless, you know, you're a lesbian... it wouldn't surprise me, the selection of guys here is still incredibly paltry... you know, it's tough not having anyone to have 'guy talks' with, you know what I'm saying?"

Patricia was beginning to get frustrated, "...Dawitsu, can you please leave me alone..."

However, Dawitsu seemed totally in his own world, "...I tell you, the outside world is an awesome place... you know, that's where your Uncle Jean comes from... he's from a country called 'France'... wonderful place, that is. There's a tall tower called 'The Eiffel Tower', and Yutaka and I went to the top of it... oh, I wish I had kissed her back then... but then again, I guess I wouldn't have Ran if I..."

"NO-ONE CARES!" Patricia finally snapped, stopping her flight.

Dawitsu took a bit of time to stop flying, and thus ended up in front of Patricia. He turned to look directly at her, and calmly said, "Now, that's no way to treat your sky-neighbour, is it? I've been nothing but nice to you, even if Reimu thinks I'm creepy..."

"...but I have something to do..." Patricia replied, "...I'm sorry, I don't have a lot of time, can you please leave me alone?"

"But I thought you were just practising..." Dawitsu began to say, before Patricia snapped for the second time in quick succession.

"OKAY! I ADMIT IT! I'M SOLVING AN INCIDENT IN THE UNDERGROUND!" Patricia yelled, "Happy now? _Now _will you leave me alone?"

"Oh, Reimu's so irresponsible..." Dawitsu remarked to the side of him, as if not speaking to Patricia, "...is that so? Well, my Chibi Clones are already on the case. There's no need for you to risk your life, so why not just..."

"Because I want to! I can't practise and practise for solving an incident and not go and solve it when one comes up!" Patricia tried to justify her actions to the most-likely concerned youkai, "Come on, surely you must know how it feels to not want to waste your talent..."

Dawitsu thought about Patricia's words for a moment... throughout his rather lengthy life, he had always taken up the role of a regular human in order to keep himself under wraps, so he had always held himself back... that was, until he had come to Gensokyo. Yes, to some extent, it was rather liberating to not have to hold back, and to do whatever he wanted... even if he was stuck as a teacher that taught mostly ungrateful human children for his day-job...

The youkai's concerned expression changed somewhat unrealistically into an accepting one, "...well, that's a very good point. Although I can understand you wanting to go out and solve this, it is highly dangerous. I wouldn't want you to get hurt... I mean, when was the last time you faced a highly powerful youkai?"

"Yesterday." Patricia bragged, "In fact, it was Yutaka and Patchouli- I had to steal a book for Aunty Marisa you see..."

Dawitsu's mood swung for the second time in quick succession, and he shouted, "YOU DID WHAT TO YUTAKA?"

"I just beat her and Patchy in a spell-card battle... they were the ones who started it..." Patricia said, shrugging her shoulders.

Dawitsu changed his posture so that it looked like he was tapping his foot on an invisible piece of ground, "...so... you stole from Yutaka, and then shot her up for her trying to stop you?"

Patricia could tell the mimicker was getting rather angry, and tried to calm him, "Look, Aunty Marisa made me..."

"OH, THAT'S IT!" Dawitsu interrupted, "I was gonna be your honorary first boss, but you know what, the tutorial level's over! Beat up a pacifist, will you? Then prepare to meet your second boss! It's on, Little Miss Miko!"

Dawitsu proceeded to take a spell-card out of his cloak, and declared, "Copycat Sign: PK Flash!"

Patricia flew away from the mimicker as he released a strange, light green orb of light. It was but one, however, it was slowly moving towards her, regardless of how she moved. Knowing her only option was to keep moving, she fired ofuda at the mimicker as she circled him, while he held his hands to his head, clearly busy concentrating on his attack.

Every shot she fired hit him, and eventually, the pain of the charms caused the mimicker to lose concentration, and allowed the pulse of light to explode, releasing a large amount of tiny, fast-moving bullets. The spray caused Patricia to focus her efforts on dodging, and after a short while, Dawitsu was in a good enough condition to fire another 'Flash' at her.

This time around, Patricia decided to take her Gohei into account, and instead of moving away from the mimicker, moved up close to him. He was busy making his attack follow the shrine maiden, and so, all Patricia needed to do was sneak up behind him, and wait for the 'Flash' to follow suit. Once it was on top of the mimicker, she smacked him on the head, causing him to detonate the 'Flash' right on himself.

Dawitsu seemed to make a strange 'status ailment' type noise, and his eyes were constantly streaming tears. Dawitsu yelled, "OW! What the hell? Oh, damn it, I'm uncontrollably crying... I think I made this a little _too _close to the original..."

Patricia smiled... if she knew anything about Dawitsu, she knew that his crying would certainly throw off his aim... although, that may not necessarily have been a good thing, given the usual tactic a Gensokyo resident has in a Danmaku battle.

Dawitsu proceeded to demonstrate as such, and shouted, "Robotics: Sentry, going up!"

The mimicker smiled, and put on a hard-hat and pair of goggles that he was keeping in some kind of hammer-space, and equipped a wrench. Patricia looked at the youkai with a sort of awe, wondering what the hell the man was doing. Within thirty seconds, he had built a small, floating piece of metal with an opening. And it just so happened to be pointing its opening at Patricia...

The object opened fire, firing bullets that were smaller, yet much faster than the average bullet of Gensokyo. Knowing her only choice, once again, was to keep moving, Patricia tried to circle the sentry and take it down, however, Dawitsu's constant hitting of the device with his wrench seemed to be providing it with protection... somehow.

Things went from bad to worse, however, and the sentry changed shape, this time being equipped with two revolving sets of openings, each one firing a bullet every second. Patricia was frantically circling the mimicker and his toy, not knowing what else she really could do...

"Feeling the pressure?" Dawitsu said, "You know, funny thing is, robots aren't affected by ofuda. I'm sure you remember the first half of my fake incident before you bailed, right? Yeah, this thing's invincible to the likes of you..."

Dawitsu hit the sentry with his wrench one last time, and the sentry grew yet another feature- this time, it had gained a cuboid section with four openings, which occasionally fired larger, slower-moving, explosive projectiles which fired shrapnel out from them as they exploded...

Patricia sighed to herself. Not only did she have to keep moving, but now she had to weave between the shattered metal shells that detonated behind her... what was it he said? Ofuda didn't harm the 'robot'? Patricia realised she should have been focusing on the person behind the sentry, and equipped a set of 'persuasion' needles.

Calling out to Dawitsu, Patricia threw her needles straight at the youkai's chest, "Heads up!"

Dawitsu was in no way prepared for the attack, and was hit spot-on. He cried out in pain, and remotely detonated his sentry, "Okay, if you're gonna be like that... time to change class..."

Dawitsu held up yet another spell-card, and declared, "Disguise: Spy's Cigarette Case!"

After his attack's declaration, he got out what looked like a cigarette case, and began to 'smoke' using one of the contents, covering himself in a mist. Once it cleared, he had transformed into an image of Reimu.

Patricia was slightly horrified by how easily the mimicker made himself look like Reimu, and was further horrified by his next trick... he began to release what seemed like fantasy orbs, however, something was... off about them...

Once they were released, they slowed to a halt, and then Dawitsu proceeded to cover himself in smoke again... which, strangely enough, also caused the 'fantasy orbs' to release smoke too. Patricia began to cough as the smoke cleared, revealing an image of Marisa where 'Reimu' once was, and a set of hakkeros surrounding Patricia.

'Marisa' smiled as he began to make the hakkeros spin around, releasing many star-shaped bullets. Patricia was actually rather disappointed by this attack. While it was aesthetically flashy to change the form of both the attacker and the bullets, it didn't make for a difficult attack, and Patricia very easy fired homing amulets at the fake Marisa until finally, the attack dispelled itself. The hakkeros disappeared, and Marisa slowly shape-shifted back into Dawitsu, who was breathing rather heavily, his eyes still full of tears.

"...I... can't..." Dawitsu gasped, "...the smoke... my eyes... I can't... I can't..."

Patricia looked at the mimicker with a certain twisted pity, and said, "It's your fault for using such masochistic attacks..."

"What do you expect?" Dawitsu replied, his breathing becoming a little more normal, "...I... I don't want to hurt you... I... I... just want to be your stage two boss..."

"But I thought you were mad about Yutaka..." Patricia pointed out.

"Well, to be honest, I had always planned on fighting you." Dawitsu replied, "...when I saw you out of my window, I knew from the get-go that you had taken on the incident yourself. I just decided to ramble on and on until you started a fight with me... and when you mentioned beating Yutaka, well, it gave me an opportunity to start the fight with you instead."

"...but... why did you have to be a boss to me at all?" Patricia asked.

Dawitsu straightened his body out, and adjusted his tokin, "...well, the underground Youkai are tough. I would rather they would only be higher-stage bosses, because they're rather powerful... I mean, imagine if the likes of Yuugi Hoshiguma was a stage two boss for you, what would the stage six boss be like?"

"What on earth are you talking about? How do you know people just get tougher the further along in the incident you get? And how do you know there will be six people to fight?" Patricia asked, genuinely confused at the strange logic the youkai was applying.

"Look, that's just how incidents go. I'm surprised Reimu or Marisa didn't tell you about the 'six-stage' rule..." Dawitsu explained, "...and then, when the main adventure is over, you get to fight an Extra Boss... hmm... I wonder who that will be... it'll probably be someone related to the main culprit..."

Patricia suddenly stopped, and said, "AHA!"

Dawitsu cocked his head, "What?"

"Well, you mentioned sending your Chibi Clones to the Underground, correct?" Patricia confirmed with the mimicker.

Dawitsu shrugged his shoulders, "Well, yes, but..."

"So you'll know a little bit about the incident's culprit already, right?" Patricia asked, "Also, you'll know where the cave to the Underground is, even if you can't go in there yourself..."

Dawitsu nodded, "Yes, I know where it is... but for the time being, my Chibi Clones haven't so much as found a whiff of a clue as to who it is... however, whatever it is, it's causing wanton destruction down there... and as far as the residents are aware, it's not for any good reason. Anyway, I presume you want me to escort you to the path to the Underground?"

Patricia smiled, putting on as innocent a face as she could, "If it's not too much trouble..."

Dawitsu sighed, "Fine... hmm, I'm gonna be late to my class... oh well, those brats don't like me anyways..."

The two floated along, quite content simply going along in silence. Finally, they reached the point directly above the cave, and Dawitsu put his tokin in his cloak's inner pocket.

"Huh? What are you doing?" Patricia asked.

"Well... it's been a while since I've had a terminal velocity flight competition with... well, anyone, really." Dawitsu replied, "Let's you and me fall and see who will reach the ground first... come on, it'll be fun..."

"...but you're heavier than me, you're obviously going to win..." Patricia unsurely stated.

"See, this is why you should come to Keine's school some time..." Dawitsu made a slightly self-assured smile, "...if you had any idea of how physics works, you'll know that all objects fall with the same acceleration... on Earth, anyway. It's nine point eight one metres per second per second, if you really want to know..."

"I don't." Patricia quickly quipped.

"...well, regardless of the specifics, the only factor that affects how much one accelerates when falling is air resistance. So... if you make yourself more streamlined, you're more likely to win the race! So, how about it? Let's race to the ground. It also doubles as the quickest way down, so what's to lose?"

Patricia shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Sure, why not?" and instantly let herself fall, causing Dawitsu to suddenly take offence.

"Hey, I didn't say you could go!" Dawitsu shouted, before putting his hands to the same level as his shoulders, "...pfft, whatever, right?"

The mimicker thus pointed himself so his head was the closest to the ground, and proceeded to pencil-dive through the air. Within seconds, he had caught up to Patricia, flattening himself out slightly as he yelled, "Hey! When the trees over there look... about the same size as an apple, then start to fly again! The momentum's a bitch!"

"You sound like you're talking from experience..." Patricia remarked in shout-ese.

"I am! Last time I left a hole in the ground, so watch it!" Dawitsu warned, "And you humans break pretty easily, so I presume hitting the ground isn't really an option..."

Patricia was about to reply, however, Dawitsu had already straightened himself out so that he'd fall faster. Patricia wasn't one to accept defeat, although her dress made her attempts to reduce her surface-area all the more futile. Finally, Dawitsu's voice was heard in the distance saying, "Start resisting gravity now!"

Dawitsu was seen swerving to and fro within the air, taking the trajectory of a falling leaf, and Patricia decided to... mimic the mimicker and begin to fly back and forth as she resisted gravity. She could feel herself slowing down, however, the ground was also getting more and more clear by the second. By the time the ordeal was over, Dawitsu had landed perfectly in an open field, and was waiting around for his shrine maiden companion to get to the ground.

While she landed a little more clumsily, she still landed safely, and surprisingly, rather close to Dawitsu.

The mimicker finally let out his emotions now that he had an audience, and yelled at the top of his lungs, "THAT... WAS... AWESOME!" the man began to laugh to himself somewhat maniacally, "You know, it's great when you don't go through extreme pain at the end... wasn't that cool?"

Patricia wasn't quite sure what the big deal was, and said, "...but anyone who can fly could just do stuff like that every day, right?"

"...hmm, maybe you're right..." Dawitsu conceded, "...but still, it's much more fun with a friend, wouldn't you say?"

Patricia couldn't help but be a little creeped out by the fully grown, three-hundred-and-thirty-eight year-old youkai referring to her as a friend, but nonetheless was polite to the mimicker, "...yeah, I guess. Okay, where's the cave?"

Dawitsu folded his arms, "Just a little west from here... we'll walk now we're close by, eh?"

The two walked along with each other, their way occasionally disturbed by the odd fairy, but the two of them together rendered them pretty much invincible... Patricia had unvaried, but effective methods of dispatching them, while Dawitsu insisted on using a different method of killing each fairy that came his way. In the end, they decided to have a contest to see how many fairies they could kill... Patricia was beginning to wonder why the youkai was even concerned for her safety in the first place, when it was so clear he was encouraging her adventurous streak...

_The Palace of the Earth Spirits, the Underground, during the former events_

The creature which had incapacitated Satori was still waiting in its little corner of destroyed items for the two targets it had blatantly stated it was awaiting, and seemed to be becoming irritated.

"Likelihood of the powerful pets' return to palace is greater than sixty percent. Unknown events must be preventing return." it stated, before stopping its monotonous soliloquy.

The event that had prompted its sudden silence was Satori mumbling in her unconscious state. The creature remained calm, and released a translucent mist from itself, revealing a more visible silhouette of itself in the process. The creature was, at the very least, humanoid, and seemed to possess three horns, however, very little could be determined from this view.

"Chloroform emitters... are functional." the creature stated, "Target: Satori Komeiji will remain unconscious... for estimated time of two hours. Powerful pets' return should happen within estimated time. Likelihood: eighty percent."

Standing up, the creature placed Satori Komeiji down, and simply stood in the mist, not affected by it at all. Finally, a sound of something entering the Palace of the Earth Spirits was heard, and the creature suddenly went from totally immobile to floating along the ground, although the only way one could tell was by its rippling effect on the environment behind of it.

Finally, it stopped, seeing one of its targets... it was a tall, black-haired woman with a large pair of wings, a cape draped over said wings, and a rather frightening-looking arm cannon covering her right hand. She shouted, "Satori-sama, I'm home! Sorry, I worked through the night at the spring heating facility..."

The creature strafed so that it was standing in front of its target, and stated, "Your mistress is currently incapacitated, and I am the cause of it. I wish to engage in combat with you."

"Huh? Who said that?" the somewhat dimwitted youkai asked, "Did... did someone hurt Satori?"

"Trauma administered by me was the cause of Satori Komeiji's incapacitation." the creature stated, "I am in front of you, under a cloak."

"A... cloak?" the hell-raven asked, clearly missing the creature's point about attacking Satori, "Why can't I see you, then? Cloaks are always so long and easy to see..."

The creature seemed to become frustrated, and charged at Utsuho Reiuji, head-butting her with one of its long, invisible horns, causing her to fall back, "I HAVE HURT YOUR MISTRESS, AND IT IS YOUR DUTY TO ATTACK ME! ATTACK ME!"

Utsuho picked herself up, and said, "...you... you hurt Satori-sama?"

"YES!" the creature stated with a slightly angered tone.

"Well... whether I can see you or not... I'd love to see you dodge this..." Utsuho said, and proceeded to declare a spell-card, "Blazing Star: Fixed Star!"

From there, Utsuho released a set of spiralling bullets, and to compliment that, a set of orbiting suns, which lit up the entire palace with its sheer power. Although the creature was fairly easily avoiding this, something within it was snapping.

It began to flicker into view every now and then, for barely more than a millisecond at a time. It seemed to be sparking electricity, and suddenly spoke up, "Show... pow... er... or... I... shall... o... bey... shall... conquer... all..."

Utsuho stopped her attack, which had been making enough noise from the collateral damage to obscure the creature's speech. She then cocked her head, and said, "What did you say? Something about showing power?"

"Show... power... or... I... shall... obey... shall... conquer... all..." the creature muttered, sparks coming from it more frequently.

Utsuho suddenly gained a rather dark smile, and calmly said, "You'll obey me if I show you power... okay..."

The hell-raven pointed her arm-cannon, or, as she called it, her 'third leg', at an empty area of the Palace, and mercilessly fired it, filling the area with the energy of a star's core. The creature simply stood and watched the power, and finally, decided to speak.

"I... shall... not repre... sent and... become... of... all..." the creature said, and floated slowly to the side of Utsuho.

Utsuho was rather confused by the actions of this bizarre creature, and asked, "So... what on earth are you?"

"You have successfully formed a link. Former master status and commands: deleted. New master: Utsuho Reiuji, nickname: Okuu." the monotonous voice of the sparking silhouette said, "I will obey your commands."

"Obey... my commands..." Utsuho smirked, "...just like it said... hmm... well, I guess that while I promised to not try and conquer the above-ground, that the stupid shrine maiden never said that I couldn't send someone else to do it for me... ha ha, the above-grounders will never expect it... "

"Implication understood." the creature stated, "However, my attack range is incomplete. Replication of the master's techniques would be preferred, however, I am unable to. I require a portable nuclear fusion power drive."

"A what?" Utsuho asked.

"A portable nuclear fusion power drive." the creature stated, its inflexions exactly the same as the last time it made the statement.

"What's one of those?"

"The device you are wearing on your right arm." the creature explained, "If it is possible to acquire an additional portable nuclear fusion power drive, it would be a valuable resource in my attempt to conquer the above ground."

"So... you want a third leg?" the hell-raven asked, "Well, why didn't you say so? I'm sure that I can find a spare one somewhere... I mean, the kind lady that let me eat a Yatagarasu must be able to make them..."

"If acquisition of portable nuclear fusion power drive is beyond possibility, then alternate measures are present." the creature offered.

The raven was finding the creature's odd pattern of speech far too complex to understand, "Huh? What did you say?"

"I will be able to replicate your attacks by other methods than acquiring a 'third leg', as you say." the creature dumbed down its explanation.

"Huh? How?" Utsuho asked.

"Accessing..." the creature muttered, twitching its transparent head as it released a spark, "...blueprints for a battery capable of storing a high enough potential difference to maintain five point seven two nine four five petawatts of electrical power for two hours are present. Construction of battery is possible."

Utsuho Reiuji scratched her head with her left hand, "I'm sorry, I don't have the slightest idea what you're saying."

The creature suddenly changed its voice into a deliberately idiotic-sounding one, "Me build big battery to store your fusion power. Me then use big battery to power me."

"OH! Now I get it!" Utsuho said with glee, seemingly unaware she was being patronised, "And then you'll be powerful enough to take over the above-ground?"

"Most likely. Probability... seventy five percent." the creature finally said.

_By this point, all concern for Satori had disappeared from Utsuho's mind... revenge had always been in the back of her mind, however, she knew all of Gensokyo would step in and stop her... now she had something else working for her... she didn't have to do anything. If it won, then it would rule the world, doing whatever she said, and if it lost... well, no skin off her nose, right? There wouldn't be any evidence that she had set this... strange creature to run amok... none whatsoever..._

Author's Note: Well, I think we all know what kind of 'creature' this creature is. Pah, I'm not even gonna act like it's a surprise or a twist any more...

...that said, if you still haven't figured it out, I ain't gonna... pfft... _spoil _it for you...


	4. 04: Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 4- Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences**

_The side of the Youkai Mountain, around eight-twenty ante-meridian_

Patricia and Dawitsu had walked to the opening of the wind tunnel which led to the area known by the above-grounders as 'the Underground', and what the under-grounders called 'Former Hell'- they considered the term more 'Politically Correct', for whatever reason.

Regardless of tautology, the entrance was right in front of the two, and Dawitsu knew that this was where the two had to part ways.

"Well, I wish I could stick around and be your bodyguard, but there's no way I can join you down there..." Dawitsu said, extending his hand at the cave entrance, "...oh yeah, and if you come across any of my Chibi Clones, give 'em my regards... also, ask them about what's going on, perhaps they can tell you something."

Patricia looked at the entrance, her stomach seeming to fill with butterflies. She gingerly walked towards the cave, and said, "...I...guess that I'll see you later..."

"Sure. I have a job to do..." Dawitsu replied, and he began to float upwards, "...best of luck with the incident! If you're anything like Reimu, you'll be done before dinner-time..."

Patricia didn't feel like replying to the mimicker, and simply nodded as he suddenly accelerated, speeding away from the scene at a rather dangerous-looking speed. The shrine maiden now felt truly alone in the world. Swallowing her worries, she muttered, "Here goes..." before entering the cave.

Upon entry, the first thing the miko noticed was an excessively powerful draft that seemed to propel her forwards. Knowing flight was her only option, she kicked herself off the ground and let the air currents take her where she needed to go. Fairies appeared, and seemed to be performing a very rehearsed routine involving several of them appearing from behind Patricia, settling in front of her, and then shooting. Occasionally, a pair of larger fairies would appear, firing strings of bullets with a sine-wave-like trajectory, forming a shape resembling a two-dimensional double helix.

While the attacks were stylish, they were hardly anything to worry about. While the cave was densely populated, there seemed to be very little powerful youkai in the immediate area, not so much as a Tsuchigumo or Tsurube-otoshi. Flying through to the end of the wind tunnel, the moderately genre-savvy shrine maiden asked, "Okay, so where's the next boss? She's got to show up around here, right?"

However, her response came in the form of a panicked-looking woman flying past her. Although it was difficult to gather much of her appearance for the split-second Patricia saw her, it could be determined that the blonde-haired woman said, "RUN! I DO _NOT _ENVY THE ANCIENT CITY!"

Patricia continued to look at the fleeing Youkai with confusion. If... if she was correct, that was Parsee Mizuhashi... running for her life and declaring how _little _envy she had for an area. Clearly something major was going on if the embodiment of jealousy was having trouble...

She continued to fly through the caves within the Youkai Mountain, and descended through a massively long pit. What was most unsettling was the eerie... emptiness of the hole. There wasn't any sign of fairies, any sign of strange, danmaku-firing orbs, or really, any people at all. Knowing that the Bridge Princess that supposedly guarded the area had clearly abandoned her post, this made the likelihood of fairy infestation all the greater, yet... there seemed to be nothing there at all.

After what seemed like a eternity, Patricia finally made it to a populated area- the Ancient City, Former Hell's unofficial 'capital'. Hieda no Akyu's records had drawn out the area as if it were a beautiful, bustling place, however, like Ancient Rome under Nero's reign, its usual beauty was tarnished by every other house having large blemishes of some sort, ranging from an ashen tone implying fire damage, to being completely levelled.

The people of the city seemed on high alert, and many people looked to Patricia and began to hide and whisper about her, as if they were expecting a human down here in the midst of the chaos... or aftermath thereof.

Deciding to land and talk to someone, Patricia walked through the ruined city, looking around for a person not afraid of her... it was odd that the famously strong youkai were being so timid, it was as if they were mistaking her for someone else...

Finally, instead of someone being found by Patricia, someone found Patricia, and stepped out in front of her. The woman was tall, top-heavy for lack of a sophisticated word, and had a body which made her seem ever so slightly masculine, although her blue, low-cut kimono seemed to do a good enough job reminding the world that, yes, this person was a female. Her face wasn't particularly notable, and nor was her hair, however, from her head protruded a rather obvious, red horn that gave away her species instantly.

Sipping from a sake dish, she calmly said, "Ah... a human miko... say, it's been a while since one of those came all the way down here. Your timing's impeccable, actually..."

Patricia was rather unnerved by the way the powerful-looking woman was standing over her, but tried to ignore this in favour of interrogating her, "...why do you say that?"

"What, are you blind?" the Oni replied, gesturing at the various destroyed buildings around them, "I'm guessing a Youkai from the above-ground sent you down here like the last one. The girl that came down here last time did a good job bringing that raven back down to earth, I guess you're here to help us out a second time? It's weird, though, as far as I'm aware, what's happening down here hasn't affected the above-ground yet..."

Patricia had to admit, it was rather strange that Reimu, Dawitsu, or even Yukari spontaneously had any knowledge of an incident down here given how contained it was, but didn't know whether she should have acknowledged that fact to the woman, "Well, I was sent here by my mentor, Reimu Hakurei..."

"Oh... the first shrine maiden..." the Oni said, smiling, "That'll explain the red-white clothes. I thought it had been a rather long time for a human not to have grown up..."

Patricia sighed. Were all 'friendly' Youkai this talkative? It seemed that Youkai were either out to eat people or talk them to death...

Deciding to get down to business, Patricia began a sentence, "Anyway, Miss..." Patricia cursed herself, realising she had given the Oni an opportunity to talk again...

"...Hoshiguma. Yuugi Hoshiguma." the woman replied, surprisingly keeping it short and sweet.

Grateful for the Oni's short reply, Patricia continued, "Anyway, I was wondering... do you know what caused this and where it headed off to?"

Yuugi smiled to herself, and finished off her dish of sake, before refilling it, "...did your mentor tell you what I did when I met her for the first time?"

"Um..." Patricia closed her eyes, knowing how this was going to turn out, "...you started a pointless Danmaku battle with her, didn't you?"

"Corr-ect!" Yuugi replied, "...while I am rather concerned for the city, I just remember that when we founded this place, is was an even more desolate wasteland, so I figure... why stop having fun? We Oni are strong, we can rebuild anything that falls apart..."

Patricia smiled to herself, remembering her drunken occasional room-mate, Suika, and nodded, "Yeah, that's true. So, I guess you're gonna fight me?"

"Just a quick test of strength." Yuugi said, "I mean, after all, the thing that caused this is pretty powerful..." Yuugi proceeded to point at a spider youkai hiding behind a barrel, "...it's got extremely powerful youkai on their knees. You really need to pass a few tests first..."

Patricia was beginning to get sick of well-meaning people putting her through 'tests'. She was beginning to think that a real Danmaku battle was never going to happen for her, and that she would never get to experience the proper adrenaline buzz Reimu and Marisa constantly rhapsodised about whenever they became nostalgic.

"Well, I'm in a hurry. Is it okay if I skip the 'test of strength' and get onto solving the incident quickly? It's in your interest to let me do so..." Patricia suddenly came to a realisation, "...hold on, why aren't you trying to stop this thing yourself? You're... presumably an Oni, so you're more than strong enough to at least try..."

"You're a human..." Yuugi 'explained', "...a human shrine maiden, at that. If it were my duty to be a hero, then there'd be no fun. No, you humans are the ones that fight Youkai, solve incidents, and save the day. And I'm just fine being part of the ensemble that gets to fight you along the way..."

Patricia was beginning to recognise a rather rigid way of thought among the residents of Gensokyo, as if they were hard-wired to see their entire lives as a great big set of games with repetitive level structure and game-play style. Accepting that fighting her was the only option, she said, "Fine. I'll fight you. And if I win, you tell me where to go next, and a little bit about what the culprit looks like, and what have you..."

"Well, about that..." Yuugi began to say, before changing her mind mid-way through, "...oh, never mind! I'll tell you when you win! Shackles Sign: Shackles a criminal can't take off!"

Declaring her attack, Yuugi Hoshiguma released a large, blue ring of energy which blocked Patricia's attempts to shoot her. The shrine maiden instantly thought of the bright idea to move to the side and fire around the ring, however, Yuugi's attack took that into account, and in addition to her 'shackle', she produced countless waves of tiny, ridiculously fast bullets. Patricia's only choice was to keep within the area the ring had been fired, and hope for the best.

It wasn't long before Patricia had figured out that the reason the ring was able to block her attacks was because it itself was being harmed by her ofuda and amulets, and so, she kept firing, causing it to slowly erase itself out of existence, before it exploded erratically, releasing massive, uncontrolled bullets into the area. Throwing herself to the side, Patricia finally had a clear way, and shot away at the Oni.

The Oni was calmly balancing her sake dish as she took the ofuda and amulets without flinching. It was clear that whatever harm this was causing her, it was negligible enough that she simply released another 'shackle' without so much as a hand-wave.

Patricia sighed, not quite knowing what she had to do the be able to fire at the Oni without unleashing a hellish amount of bullets into the field, however, she decided to try a 'compromise' strategy- she'd fire at the ring enough to make it significantly shrink, and then fire at Yuugi with the little space she had. She knew not all of her shots would hit, but it was better than destroying the ring properly.

Drinking from her sake dish, Yuugi calmly remarked, "Oh, that's not good... I'm almost out of sake..."

Patricia was rather annoyed at the woman's clear disregard for her attacks, and decided to forcibly wake her up, declaring a spell-card of her own, "Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal!"

However, instead of the set of large, homing orbs she expected to appear showing up, a circle of colourful orbs appeared around her, and exploded, clearing her immediate area of bullets, but barely scratching Yuugi.

"Wow, you're a little impulsive, aren't you?" Yuugi mused, "Okay, okay, I'll end this attack, you're being a brave sport. Feat of Strength: Storm on Mount Ooe!"

Patricia breathed a brief sigh of relief as the stream of tiny bullets that surrounded her, along with the large, obstructive rings, disappeared, only for her relief to be poorly founded as an avalanche of large, light blue bullets came flying in from the Underground's equivalent to the sky.

Instinctively, Patricia dodged left, right, up, down, forwards and backwards, panicking as she tried to focus on firing at Yuugi. The Oni herself seemed mildly amused by her little performance.

"Silly human, it's all about remaining calm..." Yuugi advised, still balancing her sake dish on her index finger and her thumb despite it being empty, "...sometimes, three-dimensional thinking can be quite easily replaced by one-dimensional thinking..."

Patricia was rather put off by the drunk's erudite speech, but soon came to realise what she was talking about... she needn't move all over the place, simply remain in front of her opponent and move forwards and backwards. Once she settled into place, she began to throw 'persuasion' needles at Yuugi, who still didn't do so much as flinch at the attack.

"That's it!" Yuugi said encouragingly, "You're getting the hang of it... but you know what the old proverbs say..."

"What do they say?" Patricia asked, moving forwards to avoid another bullet that flew in from the side.

"...whenever you get used to the pain, that's when the feeling changes!" Yuugi declared, and called out yet another spell-card name, "Four Devas Arcanum: Knock Out in Three Steps!"

Yuugi barely moved, however, the whole area shuddered, causing a fairly weak-looking house to finally give up and fall apart. As the city rumbled, two layers of bullets spawned around Yuugi, standing still in mid-air.

Patricia was confused by the attack, and flew backwards, keeping her distance. This turned out to be a rather poor choice, as the next time the Oni caused a mini-quake, a dense set of tiny bullets appeared beyond the stationary layers of bullets, ones which also stood still.

Although none appeared on top of Patricia, the sea of tiny bullets soon began to move, making Patricia panic and 'bomb' for the second time this battle, this time shouting, "Dream Sign: Evil Sealing Circle!"

A square of fire expanded from the shrine maiden, clearing the area of bullets and washing over the utterly unaffected Yuugi without so much as making her blink. Instead, it caused her to say yet another piece of advice.

"Bombing early on is not recommended. Save it for later." Yuugi said, "Have you ever learnt the martial art known as 'Ju-jitsu'?"

Patricia had never been required to formally learn a martial art, given the highly distance-based combat that every Gensokyo resident and their dogs seemed to employ, so her answer was obviously, "No."

"Well, the first principle of ju-jitsu is that one never flinches and backs away from an attack." Yuugi continued, forming her set double-layer of stationary bullets, "Instead, one redirects the opponent's attack, and moves towards the opponent... you know, for grabbing and such? Or at the very least, a knee to the crotch area..."

"What's the point in..." Patricia began to ask, but soon got to understanding Yuugi's point.

She moved towards Yuugi, nestling herself within the spaces in her double-layer of stationary bullets, and waited for her to spawn the Tokyo-train-station's worth of bullets outside of the layers. Finally, the sea began to move outwards, letting the shrine maiden move out of the double-layer, before those layers themselves moved outwards, being much easier to avoid than the veritable atmosphere of bullets that left Yuugi's control first.

Yuugi excitedly nodded, "Ah, see, now you're getting it! You've got to be calm and face your fears, not run away from them! And when you don't run, it's easier to actually overcome them when running isn't a choice!"

Patricia rolled her eyes, "I never realised this was a philosophical lecture..."

"Hey, fights, philosophy, what's the difference?" the Oni asked, "You humans think the two are like oil and vinegar, but we Oni know that when one shakes up the oil and vinegar, they become delicious dressing, which tastes better than both oil or vinegar alone!"

"I think you got a little lost in the metaphor there..." Patricia said, continuing to fire ofuda at the clearly unfazed Oni.

"...not at all." Yuugi replied, and spontaneously stopped her attack, "Okay, you win. Have fun with finding this destructive lout..."

Patricia stopped shooting at Yuugi, and put her hands on her hips, "Hold the phone, you need to tell me where this 'destructive lout' is..."

"Oh, so I do." Yuugi said, a smile on her face, "Well, it headed off to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, which is..." Yuugi stopped, and pointed down an obscure-looking street, "...down that-a-ways. The houses stop about half-way through, that's how you can tell. If that thing is trying anything major, it'll probably want to go to the abandoned Hell of the Blazing Fires..."

"...why do you keep referring to this incident causer as a 'thing'?" Patricia asked, "Isn't it a youkai of some sort?"

"I don't know." the Oni replied, "Seems to be some kind of ghost. When I saw it attacking the area, the attacks were coming from something invisible. Don't know why it bothers hiding itself when it makes such a scene shooting the place up like that..."

"I... see." Patricia mused, "So, you don't know what it looks like. Oh well, I guess if it's destroying stuff, then I'll be able to find it easily. Thanks for the information... and... uh, I guess I should thank you for the advice, too."

Yuugi laughed to herself, "Think nothing of it, human shrine maiden. When you get back to the above-ground, tell your mentor I said 'hi', okay?"

Patricia nodded, and began to fly down the road Yuugi had pointed down. The Oni folded her arms and said, "...those humans... don't they know the only way to peace is through countless fights?"

_Yukari's House, Mayohiga, around quarter-past nine ante-meridian_

Yukari Yakumo, the Border Youkai of Gensokyo, the great, omniscient, omnipotent Youkai of boundaries... was feeling particularly lacking in power. Looking at a television screen, the woman felt strangely useless, knowing that for once, she couldn't simply watch over a situation using her gaps.

Looking at her Oni Shikigami, she pressed a button on a remote control, switching the image on the television from a view of the destroyed Ancient City of the Underground to one of the outside of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

"...hmm... you got to the above-ground somehow, didn't you?" Yukari asked the Oni, who simply nodded in response, "Perhaps I should have just sent you to the Underground to keep watch. I mean, the residents of the city wouldn't notice that you're an outsider, right?"

The Oni seemed determined to remain silent, and made a little 'play' with her hands, with one 'walking', and the other 'kicking' the first in the back, causing the first to 'fly' away. Yukari sighed to herself.

"You were kicked out, eh?" Yukari rolled her eyes, "I can't believe that in the end, my replacement for Ran was a drunken mime..."

The Oni took offence to this somewhat true remark, and in order to hide said truth, she quickly threw away a bottle of sake she had hidden in her pocket.

"...I guess you wouldn't be able to report back to me, anyway..." Yukari mused to herself, switching the video channel again, "Oh well, I guess I..."

Suddenly, the Border Youkai stopped, and smirked. She had switched to a view of the abandoned section of 'Former Hell', the part known as 'the Hell of the Blazing Fires'. There, she saw Utsuho Reiuji with some kind of blob of glowing liquid on her 'third leg'... however, what was even stranger was that there was a strange, dubiously visible object next to her, occasionally flickering into vision.

A rather weedy-sounding voice from behind the camera said, "Whoa... whoa, I actually found something! The original's gonna be so proud of me!"

Yukari face-palmed, "Don't shout your success to the world, you idiotic clone..."

Just as Yukari said that, the object floating next to Utsuho turned around, and declared, "Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic."

Yukari's face fell as the creature faced the camera directly, and fired a massive laser towards it, blinding the camera and presumably killing the terminally stupid clone that was wearing it.

The Border Youkai stared at the white noise for a moment, and then thought to herself, "Hold on... that... that thing... that isn't a usual resident of the Underground, that's for sure... also, it was dealing with Utsuho Reiuji rather calmly."

Yukari's Oni Shikigami pointed to herself, and then to Yukari.

"Yes, yes, no need to state the obvious." Yukari replied, nodding, "It referred to Utsuho as a 'master'. If this thing is what I think it is... okay, we may have a problem. A far greater problem than foreseen..."

Opening up a gap and reaching her hand into it, Yukari rummaged around until finally, she pulled Dawitsu out of the gap, and dropped him onto her house's floor.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? I was in the middle of teaching a..." Dawitsu began to say, but Yukari quickly stopped him.

"Come on, it's not like those kids are going to miss you. Let them doss around for five minutes." Yukari said, "Now, I'm here to tell you some bad news..."

"You found it, right?" Dawitsu asked, "That's what you're gonna tell me, right? Well, there was no need to drag me from my job just to tell me my plan's going... well, as planned!"

"Do you think I _want _to spend any more time with you than necessary?" Yukari rhetorically asked, however, Dawitsu failed to get the memo regarding the question's rhetorical nature.

"...well, I'm a handsome man, I can understand you wanting to..." Dawitsu began to joke, however, he was swiftly silenced by a clubbing into the ground courtesy of Yukari's parasol.

"...just shut up and listen." Yukari bluntly said, "It's working with Utsuho Reiuji."

"It's... it's doing _what_?" Dawitsu asked, suddenly taking the whole event more seriously, "But... but it why would Utsuho be affiliated with... oh... oh crap..."

"Well, it seems to recognise her as some kind of 'master'..." Yukari replied, "I guess that means Utsuho has big plans of some sort... haven't seen _that _happen before..."

"So, you reckon Utsuho is planning on using it to attack the above-ground?" Dawitsu said, climbing out of Yukari's floor, "But if she wants to do that, surely she has enough power to do that on her own..."

"You fool..." Yukari replied, "She agreed not to attack the above-ground when Reimu... or... or was it Marisa... well, when Reimu or Marisa beat her, she agreed not to attack the above-ground, so she must know that everyone will attack her if she broke that agreement. Don't tell me you wouldn't step in and defend Gensokyo yourself if that happened..."

"...you have a point. Even with all that fusion power, she's outnumbered." Dawitsu replied, "So, how does using it as some kind of weapon change anything? Everyone would still notice and try to stop the thing, right?"

Yukari ruffled Dawitsu's hair in a very poor facsimile of affection, "Awww, it seems even idiots like you have a brain... I'm so very happy for you..."

Dawitsu blushed slightly as Yukari pinched his cheeks, "...um... what the hell are you talking about?"

"...what I mean is, Utsuho is too stupid to realise people will find out about her using a living weapon to get around her agreement, and simply zone in on the weapon, and if they're aware that Utsuho is the user of said weapon, I can be sure they'll zone in on Utsuho next." Yukari explained, switching to patting Dawitsu like a dog, "However, you're smarter than someone able to be fooled by an Ice Fairy! I must say, you superseded my expectations..."

"...okay, you can stop patronising me now." Dawitsu said, "So, what are we going to do? The situation's gonna be far worse for Patricia now that we know someone as powerful as Utsuho is involved..."

"This incident may have fallen outside of our preparations, but something tells me Miss Hakurei will be okay..." Yukari replied, "...if there's something I've learnt about the Hakurei 'Clan', if one can call it that, it's that as long as they're solving incidents, fate is _always _on their side."

"That still doesn't tell us what _we_ need to do in response to this..." Dawitsu said in a frustrated tone.

"We need to do what my ever-useful Shikigami has been doing throughout our conversation..." Yukari answered, turning her head to face the Oni, "...absolutely nothing."

The Oni responded to the insult by raising its hand, turning it around and pointing only its middle finger upwards.

"She doesn't talk much, does she?" Dawitsu remarked.

The Oni responded by lifting her other hand to repeat the previous action, and Yukari smirked, "Yeah. Thanks for getting me stuck with her, by the way. Now, get out of my house."

"Hey, aren't you going to gap me back to my class?" Dawitsu asked.

"No." Yukari plainly stated, "Now, get out before I get my Shikigami to demonstrate that her bite is infinitely greater than her bark."

Dawitsu quickly scurried out of the Border Youkai's room, and left her house within a minute. Yukari sniggered to herself contentedly, "Well, at least I had some fun today... what do you say? Oh, of course..."

The Oni Shikigami glared at Yukari, not impressed with her joke. Yukari folded her arms, and said, "Come on, I'll get you some vodka from the outside world to make up for that remark."

The Oni's expression changed slightly, and the two walked out of Yukari's bedroom, heading off to... Lord knows where...

_The Hell of Blazing Fires, the Underground, slightly before the former events_

Utsuho Reiuji was happily flying above the treacherous lava pools which made up most of the abandoned section of 'Former Hell' with her newly-acquired, semi-visible 'pet'. The creature still seemed intent on hiding itself, for whatever reason, almost as if it was stage-shy.

"Raw materials required for construction of battery capable of storing fusion energy may be present in magma." the creature stated in a slightly more elated tone than usual.

"So... there's stuff in the lava that we're gonna make the battery from?" Utsuho said, seemingly getting used to the creature's bizarre dialect.

"Possibly. Are you in possession of data regarding the composition of the magma?" the creature inquired.

"Huh?" Utsuho asked, clearly not being _totally _used to the creature's odd speech patterns.

"To be specific: Is this magma rich in Iron-two-oxide?" the creature asked, "And furthermore, is mining of the area possible?"

"Well... I don't know what that 'Iron-two-oxide' thing is, well... apart from that Iron is too stable to use in fusion according to the nice lady... why would you need that?" Utsuho said.

"The battery will not be a fusion drive." the creature stated, "It will be a general storage of energy. The only difference shall be that it is capable of storing high enough energy levels to accommodate for your large amount of power..."

"You like my power?" Utsuho asked, "You're a cutie, you know that? Speaking all funny, and what-not? What did you want again?"

The creature seemed a little confused by the brief moment of affection, but soon switched back to its overly technical explanations, "I wish to extract the magma from this location, and further extract Iron-two-oxide from that. In order to perform the second task, I require..."

"Hold on... when you say 'extract', do you mean you want to take some lava from here?" Utsuho asked.

"Yes." the creature quickly replied.

"Well, why didn't you say?" Utsuho replied, and flew downwards towards the lava pool, and dipped her 'third leg' into it. Tilting the massive arm-cannon, she lifted out a blob of magma balanced on her 'third leg', and flew back up carefully, "Okay, here's some of that lava! So, what's the next step?"

The creature twitched a little, and sparks came from it, making itself temporarily visible. It seemed about to say something, however, a voice was heard in the distance, shouting, "Whoa... whoa, I actually found something! The original's gonna be so proud of me!"

Stopping in its tracks, the creature stated, "Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic."

The creature proceeded to turn to the source of the shout, and saw a diminutive, slightly deformed rendition of certain mimicking youkai. The creature twitched, and hesitated slightly before it fired a massive blue laser from itself, which hit the tiny man head on, causing it to fall out of the air and into the lava below it, forming a strange, ash-like residue on the surface.

"Threat terminated." the creature stated, "Target biotic was superficially familiar."

Utsuho, who was too busy focusing on keeping the magma from falling off her 'third leg', said, "Hold on, what just happened?"

"Nothing that concerns you. The master is now safe." the creature replied, and continued to say, "Is the magma below five thousand Kelvin currently?"

"...huh? What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked, "Oh, I get it! You're wondering why I can let this lava stay on my third leg! Well, it's because it's made of a very strong..."

"Determining temperature." the creature stated, ignoring its master, and reached out to touch to blob of magma on Utsuho's third leg.

The mere touch of it caused its hand to fully go into view, it was a cold, shiny grey which became a glowing yellow at the very edges where it was touching the magma.

Utsuho widened her eyes, "That's a strange colour of skin..."

Removing its hand, the creature once again ignored its master, and said, "Temperature is six thousand five hundred and thirty seven Kelvin. Taking magma to cooler location to aide removal of temperature is recommended."

"Huh? You want to go somewhere colder?" Utsuho asked, "Well, okay, but you were the one to ask me to take you here..."

"Our purpose at this location is currently complete." the creature stated, "One electrode of battery, and potentially, material for casing, has been acquired. The other electrode requires lithium metal. Suggested location for retrieval: Unknown."

"So... where do you want to go?" Utsuho said, seemingly concerned for the creature, whose hand was still glowing from touching the magma.

The creature scanned the immediate area, and determined its next location- a small rock mountain standing in the lava, "We shall rest there. Iron-two-oxide extraction process and initialisation of battery construction shall occur there."

"If... you say so... what about going back home?" Utsuho asked.

"Return to Palace of Earth Spirits is not preferred. Satori Komeiji will be searching for me, and attack me in a misguided attempt to protect you from me." the creature explained, seeming to know more about a sentient being's behaviour than Utsuho herself.

"I... guess that makes sense." Utsuho replied, "Hey, are you hungry? Once you sit down on top of there, I can get a corpse from the furnace..."

"I do not require sustenance through digestion of organic molecules." the creature stated, before twitching slightly, and releasing a few sparks, "However, the good intentions of your offer are notified."

Utsuho smiled, and used her left arm to pat the creature where she thought its back was, and said, "Aw, you're actually quite sweet underneath that sciencey gobbledygook, aren't you?"

"What is 'sweet'?" the creature asked.

"Well... well... it just means... you know, you're nice." Utsuho said, "I mean, you're helping me for no reason and you've only just met me... and you're calling me 'master' and all sorts. That makes you sweet."

"I operate by serving the being that demonstrates the most power to me." the creature replied, "I am serving you on that basis."

Utsuho smiled to herself, "Whatever you say, silly. You're so funny, trying to hide it."

_The creature ignored its master, and flew to the mountain slowly, taking into account the fact that she was balancing a red-hot, still-liquid globule of magma on her arm cannon. Eventually, they got there, and the creature sat on the peak, and under Utsuho's command, stayed put while she got herself a toasted corpse from her geyser heating centre._

_When she returned, she sat with the creature and ate heartily, and occasionally offered a piece of meat to the creature, who refused in the most technical way a person possibly could. Instead, it scraped the ground of the mountain, and held a piece of ground in its hand, looking at it intently, as if it was figuring something out..._

Author's Notes: Hooray, hooray, another chapter ends today!

Well, this... happened. Meh, I have no real... notes to say on this beyond I am surprisingly motivated to write again.


	5. 05: Long Time, No See

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 5- Long Time, No See**

_The Palace of the Earth Spirits, around quarter to ten ante-meridian_

The Palace of the Earth Spirits was almost a wreckage compared to its usual splendour, the beautiful stained glass windows either covered in ash or completely shattered. While Utsuho Reiuji had visited the destroyed location and actually added to the mess, Rin Kaenbyou was only just returning home now, as she had been busy with... whatever antics a Kasha tends to do with her time.

She looked over the destruction, and quietly said, "...so... the thing that's been attacking the Ancient City has..." before coming to the realisation that her mistress hadn't noticed her entry, "...Satori-sama!"

Orin's pace became a strange hybrid between a walk and a jog, before finally, she broke out into flight, searching frantically for her master. Eventually she found the satori lying next to a pile of broken glass, and rushed to her aid.

"Satori-sama! Satori! Are you okay?" Rin shouted, shaking her mistress in a worried manner, "Please, wake up... wake up, Satori!"

The purple-haired youkai seemed unresponsive at first, however, after a long enough session of shaking, Satori woke from her slumber, her eyes slowly, groggily opening. The first thing she had to say for herself was, "...can you please stop shaking me, it's making me feel nauseous..."

Rin stopped shaking Satori as requested, and helped her mistress up. She then began to say, "...what on earth..."

"...happened here?" Satori finished off her pet's question, her third eye clearly still functional, "Well, your suspicions about it being a creature that attacked the ancient city are most likely correct. It stated its wish to incite fear into the underground by presenting me to the residents... however, it seems that hasn't happened..."

"So... it was lying?" Rin asked, "You'd know, right?"

"...actually..." Satori mumbled, her tone indicating a little shame, "...I was unable to read the attacker's mind. I attempted to fight it, but it defeated me... I was unable to see anything at all..."

"But... I thought that..." Rin began to say, but once again, Satori finished her sentence.

"...I was capable of reading all minds? I did also." Satori said, a slightly humbled tone to her voice, "...this creature may be anywhere. Rin, have you seen Utsuho anywhere?"

"Well, last time I heard from her, she was..." Rin realised her mistress was simply going to finish her sentence again, and so stopped ahead of time.

"...working in the spring heater..." Satori mused, "Rin, please can you go to the former Hell of the Blazing Fires and try to find Utsuho?"

"But... what about the Palace? Are you sure you'll be able to defend it on your own?" Rin asked, concern in her voice.

"I will do what I must." Satori mused, "Just make sure Utsuho is safe. In fact, if the intruder has come across her, it may have been defeated. I shall ask a rather powerful evil spirit to stay at the door of the Palace..."

Rin foolishly began a sentence that would jeopardise the poorly-concealed narrative secrecy of the spirit's identity, "That jerk from..."

However, Satori seemed to understand the importance of keeping such narrative secrecy, and decided to stop her pet in her tracks, "Yes, that evil spirit. She will not argue with me. I know enough about her misdeeds to make her co-operate with me... I imagine she is hiding somewhere in here..."

Rin seemed unconvinced that Satori's proposed ally would actually be loyal, and voiced a single co-ordinating conjunction, "...but..."

"...your concerns may be valid. But your uses lie in finding Utsuho. Please leave..." Satori commanded her pet calmly.

"Yes, Satori-sama..." Rin quietly conceded, and floated towards the exit of the Palace that led to the courtyard, that was, the pool of lava that used to be the Hell of the Blazing Fires.

Satori straightened out her clothes, and mumbled a few pieces of unintelligible sounds to herself, before she decided to find her potential ally. Every time she came across an evil spirit, she stared at it intently, pointing her third eye at the will-o-wisps, before changing her direction to suit the information she had acquired from the evil spirit in question.

After searching back and forth through her mansion, she finally came across the person she was looking for... it was an evil spirit which, for whatever arbitrary choice, seemed to prefer taking a humanoid appearance, albeit one without legs.

She was wearing a somewhat tattered-looking blue cloak with images of various celestial bodies decorating it, and was wearing a pointed blue hat that completed the look. Her hair was long and a dark shade of green, with her glazed, piercing eyes matching said hair perfectly. She seemed to be playing a card game with a couple of other, less humanoid evil spirits, who were holding their hands with some kind of telekinesis.

"What do you want?" the evil spirit asked, looking at her hand intently, as if she was trying to dismiss the Satori.

"Mima is your name, isn't it?" Satori asked, "Mima, there is a request I have to make of you. I am aware that you are in possession of some powerful magical skills. This is a time of crisis, and... huh? You... sat here and played cards while the intruder attacked the Palace?"

"Yeah." Mima mused, "So what? What's in it for me to protect this place from anyone? It's not like anything happens around here any more. There was no way I was going to stop such an attack..." Mima smiled, and looked at one of her evil spirit friends, "...I raise five hundred yen."

Satori stared at Mima coldly, before calmly saying to the other evil spirit, "She's bluffing. Raise her, your hand is the best..."

Mima scowled, and muttered, "You did that on purpose..."

"Naturally." Satori replied, "And if you do not do as I say, I'll reveal other things I know about you to... your friends." Satori stopped talking, before seeming to pick something up, "...like what, you ask? Well, your past. Most notably, about how you used to be something glorious, before..."

"...shut up!" Mima snapped, throwing her cards to the floor, "I fold! Fine, what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to be a door guard to the Palace of the Earth Spirits." Satori replied, "If the intruder has fled towards the Ancient City, then make sure it stays out. If it has fled to the courtyard, then Okuu and Orin will deal with it. Either way, we shall make sure this creature does not attack this place again. Am I clear?"

Mima folded her arms, "If you insist. I'm pretty sure I'd make short work of that thing if I had fought it... hold on a second..."

"...you have recalled something you had stopped thinking about..." Satori said before stating what that 'something' was, "...you... heard Utsuho's voice in the Palace? And the sound of danmaku? What does this... perhaps the intruder is already defeated... regardless, I want you to guard the Palace until we know for sure. Do you understand?"

"Yes, mistress. Anything for you, mistress..." Mima sarcastically muttered, "...now I know why all the Earth Spirits..."

"...enough from you. Assume your post." Satori interrupted.

Mima grunted, and floated towards a small bindle-sack that seemed as old and tattered as her outfit, and pulled out an unfittingly-long staff with a moon-shaped tip. She smiled a little, and said, "You know, perhaps being a guard won't be so bad after all... if I get to use this little baby again..."

Floating away from the scene, Satori smirked as she looked at the other two evil spirits, who were still 'holding' their cards. She put her hands to her hips, muttering, "Mind if I sit in for a hand? Yes? Well, in that case, drop the cards and become active. We need every evil spirit on the case to help weaken the enemy..."

The evil spirits transformed into a pair of hand-shaped wisps, which both raised simultaneously, as if to 'shrug'. With that, they dropped their cards, and put at least a superficial effort into 'patrolling the Palace'...

_The Road to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, shortly afterwards_

Patricia was flying along the road that Yuugi had told her to go down, and despite the distance along the road seeming relatively short when she had looked down it at first, the flight along it had quickly become an arduous one.

The fairies that patrolled the area seemed stronger than usual, and in addition, several evil spirits had appeared throughout the area, usually to fire a tiny amount of danmaku before disappearing into thin air. The area seemed to be on high alert, as if something major was occurring over here... there was no doubt about it, Patricia was getting rather close to the culprit...

At a rather calm point in the journey, a slightly more powerful individual flew into Patricia's vision, one which was rather familiar-looking, albeit a little shorter than Patricia was used to.

A miniature rendition of Dawitsu was floating beside Patricia, wearing some kind of lensed device on its chest. It smiled a semi-friendly smile at the shrine maiden, before saying, "...hey there, Patricia! That's your name, right? The original told me to expect you around this area!"

"...huh?" Patricia asked, "But... but Dawitsu was working with Yukari when he sent you down here, right? He was making sure I didn't have to go down here myself to deal with this incident..."

The clone laughed to himself, "Well, the original sure didn't tell me that. He just told me to keep on the lookout for the G... oops, I'm not supposed to tell you that..."

Patricia's gaze became suspicious, as did her tone of voice, "...what did he tell you? What do you know that Dawitsu doesn't want to tell me?"

"It's... it's not important!" the Chibi Clone stammered, speeding up his flight so it was ahead of her and flying backwards, "The original sent me down here to look for the incident's culprit, and that's all. I'd report it back to him, and nothing more..."

Patricia could quite easily tell the clone was withholding information, and decided to use the tactic that had been working just fine for getting what she had wanted so far- throwing ofuda at the clone, "Look, you're gonna tell me what you know... all of it!"

The clone flew to the side, and dodged the shot, "...crap, I'm sorry, original... Patricia, I will not tell you..."

"Are you sure I can't..." Patricia grinned a little sadistically, withdrawing a set of needles, "...persuade you?"

Patricia threw the persuasion needles at the littlest mimicker, however, it once again dodged her attacks rather easily, "...I'm afraid I'd rather die than fail my mission... in fact, I was created for the sole purpose of this mission... hmm..." the clone suddenly pulled up its tiny blue sleeve, revealing a watch, "...hmm... I have two hours left... well... I guess that... okay, it was nice knowing ya... briefly!"

Patricia became worried, "...hold on, what do you think you're..."

"Copycat Sign: Suicide Grunt's Lament!" the clone declared, before taking two iridescent spheres out of his pockets. After a clicking sound, the spheres began to glow a bright cyan colour, and the clone said in an unfittingly happy tone, "...best of luck defeating it!"

Before Patricia could say anything, the spheres in the clone's hands exploded, killing the unfortunate duplicate instantly, a dust cloud where it once was. Patricia was surprisingly calm about witnessing a clone commit suicide right before her eyes, and seemed more concerned about the fact it had died before it could give some information to her.

"...what the hell was that about?" Patricia mumbled, "Why wouldn't Dawitsu give me the full story... what are Yukari and him up to if they weren't trying to solve the incident themselves? These clones... I need to find another, and stop it before it kills itself next..."

She continued her flight, and after dealing with a few more waves of highly skilled, larger fairies, in conjunction with the occasional cloud of evil spirits. Although it was a struggle, Patricia managed to get through the whole experience while only using three bombs.

A while after the road had stopped looking like a road and more a repetitious scrolling background, Patricia finally saw a grand, amazingly tall building which she could only assume was the Palace of the Earth Spirits. As expected, it showed significant external damage, most notably on the windows, which were practically non-existent.

Hovering at the doorway was a strange humanoid which seemed to lack legs of any description, whom was holding a staff with the crescent moon adorning the top. Patricia rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what role this person would play.

Flying up to the doorwoman, she quickly said, "I'm an incident resolver, and wish to be let into the Palace of the Earth Spirits. If you don't let me, then we're probably going to get into a spell-card battle."

The humanoid evil spirit's eyes widened, and for a moment, she levitated backwards in shock, "...huh? But... but... Reimu... Reimu can't still be this... this young... did she... did she become a youkai in my absence? But... why... how..."

Patricia cocked her head in confusion, and asked, "I'm sorry, do you know Reimu Hakurei?"

Mima began to stutter, "...s-so... you're not Reimu? But... you look so similar to her..."

"I'm her successor." Patricia stated, "Patricia Hakurei. And you are?"

"Guess." Mima said, folding her arms with pride, "I'm sure your predecessor has told you all about me. I was one of her greatest threats..."

"...hmm..." Patricia mumbled, "...you have... green hair... and... dress in blue... um, Sanae, why are you down here, and why are you speaking so differently to usual?"

Mima became frustrated, "I'M NOT THIS 'SANAE' PERSON! I'M MIMA! MIMA! GREAT EVIL SPIRIT, WHO TOOK OVER THE HAKUREI SHRINE AND DESTROYED MAKAI WITH EASE!"

Patricia shrugged her shoulders, "...sorry, never heard of you..."

"I TRAINED MARISA KIRISAME!" Mima yelled, clearly insulted by not being given the fear she apparently deserved.

"You... trained Aunty Marisa?" Patricia asked, "...huh. She never mentioned you either."

Mima was clearly reaching her limit, and decided to perform her job simply to spite the ignorant shrine maiden, "THAT'S IT! I AM THE DOORWOMAN, AND YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Patricia sighed, "Well, I guess that was coming..."

"Insolent child!" Mima shouted, "Well, I guess it's time for a little vengeance. If Reimu doesn't remember me, than I'll make sure she remembers the day her successor mysteriously went missing. Enough talk! Orrerie's Sun!"

Mima flew into the air, and raised her staff, causing four spheres to surround her. Orbiting her the same way an electron would orbit an atom according to science fiction novels, the spheres began to fire countless short, blue lasers at Patricia, who naturally took to dodging the attack.

Reversing the rotation direction of the spheres, Mima smirked to herself, and said, "You haven't happened to fight your precious 'Aunty Marisa' at all, have you?"

"No, I haven't, but..." Patricia began to say, before she was interrupted by the next phase of Mima's attack.

Pointing her staff at Patricia, Mima caused her attack devices to fire four massive, constant lasers towards the Shrine Maiden, who rather naturally panicked and began to move as quickly as possible to evade the lasers, which changed trajectory according to her movements. However, Mima clocked on to her predictable evasion strategy, and altered the direction of two of her familiars, so that they confined Patricia within a certain area while the remaining two continued to pursue her.

"Ah ha ha! Even if Reimu had warned you about me, you wouldn't have been prepared for this! I've been changing my attacks, just in case Reimu decided to visit here!" Mima declared, letting a slightly unhinged-sounding laugh, "I've been waiting... for so long... I'm glad you're here, heh heh."

"Am I a disappointing substitute?" Patricia asked.

"Hey, this is my first attack..." Mima replied, "...I've nowhere near gauged your abilities. Reimu was a strong girl, you have a lot to live up to... now, I'm pretty sure you've seen Marisa perform her... flawed version of this attack..."

Patricia gulped, knowing what was coming next. Her thoughts bounced ideas against her body, and in the confusion, she simply floated in anticipation, ready to split as soon as she could.

"Twilight... SPARK!" Mima yelled, and she proceeded to point her staff at Patricia, before it released a great, glorious laser from itself. Patricia dashed out of the way, before realising that Mima was also releasing a large amount of star-shaped bullets from herself in addition to the massive laser that was leaving a massive flaming mass on the ground below the two.

Slipping and ducking through the various stars, Patricia suddenly had a brain-wave... Marisa and Jean's hakkero! The present she had! Using this would be the ultimate surprise... however, she had only used it once before while being trained by Jean, and even then, she blew herself away with the sheer power of the device. Figuring it was worth the risk, she took the octagonal prism out of her pocket...

"Love Sign: Master Spark!" Patricia shouted, pointing the hakkero at Mima...however, the device refused to fire.

Mima looked at the shrine maiden, and stopped firing her 'Twilight Spark'. She giggled to herself, before bursting into a maniacal laugh, "Ha ha... you... you actually think you can use... you actually think you can... ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Mima seemed to be experiencing a mixture of mad laughter and genuine amusement, as if whatever thoughts of vengeance she had been having had caused the evil spirit to have lost more than a few marbles. Patricia looked at the hakkero with confusion, wondering why it wasn't working, before deciding that regardless of whether or not the hakkero worked, she now had an opening.

Equipping a set of persuasion needles, she decided to lay the hurt on the evil spirit, who recoiled to the feeling of the needles, turning to face Patricia, "What on earth are those infernal things?"

"Persuasion needles. Reimu used them all the time..." Patricia smirked, "...don't tell me... she didn't use them on you. I guess she was going easy on you the entire time..."

At this, Mima exploded, "ENOUGH! TWILIGHT... SPARK!"

Mima pointed her staff at Patricia and repeated her attack, while Patricia repeated her evasion of the massive, five point twenty-two gigawatt laser that dominated most of the area. Patricia decided to get out her hakkero again, and pointed it at Mima...

"...hmm... Jean did say it only fires when you genuinely love it..." Patricia mumbled to herself, "...I... love you. I... love you a lot..."

The hakkero refused to fire, however, and Mima stopped firing her current spark, readjusting her aim once again. Air cartwheeling out of the way of another ridiculously huge laser, Patricia conceded to herself, "I'm gonna have to kiss it, aren't I?"

Mima was increasing ever more in her rage, this time it being compounded by the shrine maiden's inability to get hit. Patricia, on the other hand, found an area that seemed like it was going to be a safe-spot for at least another five seconds.

Patricia sighed, saying, "...I... love you, hakkero." before she gingerly brought her lips to the non-operational end of the device.

Pressing her lips onto it, the device let out a little spot of energy, before it released a huge, one point twenty-one gigawatt Master Spark, sending Patricia flying backwards head-first, and surprising Mima to say the very least at the laser engulfed her.

The entire doorway had ceased to exist, and Patricia had flown backwards to the ground, while Mima was still floating there, her clothes more tattered than ever.

"You fool! I am resilient to all of Marisa's attacks! I should know, I trained her in attacks that made it difficult for her to betray me!" Mima declared, her pride showing more clearly than ever, "Now, let's end this! Light Sign: Earth Light Ray!"

Patricia's lips were literally cemented onto the hakkero, and so all she could do was look on in silence as she threw several hakkeros towards her. Patricia got up quickly and began to fly again, as the hakkeros began to fire long, red and blue lasers from them. Mima herself seemed to be taking it easy, and was firing simple, slow-moving waves of stars towards Patricia while moving about.

The mobile nature of Mima's behaviour forced her to use homing amulets, despite their relatively slow rate of dispatching enemies. Patricia soon realised what Mima's tactic was... effectively force her down a route which would cause her to run into one of the many vertically shooting lasers that the hakkeros were firing.

However, Patricia knew how best to avoid such an attack- she suddenly swerved to the side, so she was far away from her former location, and then slowly began to edge towards said former location, all while speeding up and slowing down according to when the lasers below her fired.

Mima was slowly beginning to let the pain of the amulets get to her, and she finally decided to raise her arm, and call out one last attack, "COMET: BLAZING STAR!"

Pointing her staff away from Patricia, Mima grinned as she began to fire a massive laser, so as to propel herself at break-neck speed towards the unwitting shrine maiden, who got hit by Mima herself.

Clinging onto the evil spirit for dear life, Patricia shouted in a muffled tone, "VEH WINDOW!"

Mima scowled at Patricia, "LET GO! TIME TO DIE..." however, once Patricia granted her wish, she realised what the shrine maiden was babbling about. She was heading straight for the last intact window of the front of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and the momentum caused by the spark was too much to counteract...

...however, instead of screaming, she suddenly became reserved, and rolled her eyes, accepting her fate, "...I guess she is a Hakurei Shrine maiden. I should just be glad I got to fight one of those again..."

Smashing through the window and causing a massive crashing sound against the ceiling of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, Mima soon became unconscious, and fell to the floor in an undignified manner.

Patricia, who still had a hakkero on her mouth, pulled said hakkero off and put it in her pocket. She slowly floated in through the most recently broken window, and looked at the dint in the ceiling left by the evil spirit.

"...wow..." Patricia mused, "...I didn't realise evil spirits were solid in the first place..."

Just as she said that, a set of less solid-looking evil spirits appeared around her, and Patricia smiled to herself, equipping her hands with ofuda, "...I guess this place is the next stage..."

_A mountain within the Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, during Patricia and Mima's fight_

Utsuho Reiuji had finished eating her banquet of toasted skin, toasted brain, toasted liver, toasted heart, and toasted toast found within the bowels of the corpse she had been ravenously eating. The creature had spent the whole time digging a hole at the top of the mountain, ignoring Utsuho's kind offers of sharing.

Once she was done licking her fingers, Utsuho stood over the hole, saying, "Hey... what are you doing down there? I though you were going to take that iron-two-oxygen thingy from the lava..."

The creature, although invisible, continued to cause strange, silver-like dirt to fly out of its hole, "...I shall extract iron-two-oxide when I find an area within this landmass that contains a significant amount of lithium metal. Traces were detected at surface, and anaerobic areas are more likely to contain unreacted lithium..."

"Oh... okay." Utsuho mumbled, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Your input is unnecessary." the creature stated, before twitching and releasing a spark, "But... your offer is... 'sweet'."

"Well, I wouldn't call it..." Utsuho began to say, before suddenly realising the significance of the word, "...hold on, you just said what I told you about before... I guess I like using new words too..."

The creature remained silent at this, and continued to dig, until finally, it came across a shiny, silver lump in the ground. It began to spark a little more at the sight of it, and allowed the shiny layer to tarnish in front of it, and then climbed out of its hole.

"Large supply of lithium metal found." the creature reported, "Extraction of Iron-two-oxide will commence."

The glob of magma, which was now lying on the floor next to the creature's hole, was picked up by the creature, who seemed much less affected by it now it had cooled. Sitting down on the floor, it began to handle the magma in a bizarre way, and the silhouettes which indicated 'hands' become tubes, and soon, the magma was absorbed into the creature.

This display confused Utsuho an understandable amount, and she decided to ask, "...just... what are you? And why are you always hiding yourself?"

"Form is unimportant, and battle research indicates that confusion of opponent is attained by invisibility..." the creature muttered.

"But you're not in a battle right now..." Utsuho pointed out, "...now, I'm your master, and I command you to show yourself. Okay?"

The creature paused, and began to spark, before finally, it slowly became visible. It was a mechanical looking life-form, one whose colour scheme was mostly black and yellow, with grey tube-hands and joints where the metal was exposed. On its head was a large yellow crest that contained a blue gem at its centre, with two additional horns protruding from the sides. Its eyes were a glowing blue, with a red outline, and its mouth, if it had any opening at all, seemed to have an opening perpendicular to the average being.

"...form has been revealed." the creature stated, "Permission to restore cloak in battle situations?"

"I... guess..." Utsuho said, her eyes wide with awe. She wasn't sure how to respond to the odd look of the creature, and asked, "...so... what are you."

"I am a weapon." the creature stated, "My creator was formerly my master. Master registry: Mateyuu Dawitsu, Utsuho Reiuji."

"Who... who is this... Dawitsu fellow?" Utsuho asked, the creature's answers only further confusing her.

The creature remained seated, and began to monotonously list data, "Former Master Mateyuu Dawitsu: Attack Replicating Youkai. Projectile attacks acquired from former master: Copycat Sign: Jeff's Heavy Bazooka, Copycat Sign: Sasha and Natascha, Optics: Optical Camouflage, Artillery: Spartan Laser..."

"...it's okay, you can stop." Utsuho said, and the robot did just as commanded, "So... did your creator name you?"

"My model name is 'Gizoid: Prototype Mimicking Weapon Mark One'." the creature stated.

"Well, that name's terrible!" Utsuho indignantly replied.

"Reset of self-indentification key is possible." the Gizoid stated.

"So... does that mean I can rename you?" Utsuho asked.

"Yes." the robot replied.

"In that case... I'll name you... Okuu Junior!" Utsuho said with glee, and patted the robot on its head at a point where there wasn't any horns.

"Self-identification key changed. Current name: Okuu Junior." the robot said in response, before clicking, "Iron-two-oxide extraction complete. Silicon dioxide was also isolated. Decision to use silicon dioxide as battery casing was made."

The robot's hand-tubes retracted, and a thick, glass case with a thick, black liquid within it was expelled from one of the holes at the end of the robot's arms. Its grey hands took their rightful positions at the end of its arms, and it held the glass case for a moment, and stated, "Battery construction is almost complete. Mining of lithium will commence."

"Wow... and then, when you have that battery, you'll be powerful enough to copy me, is that what you've been trying to do?" Utsuho questioned the Gizoid, who seemed to be somewhat enjoying staring at its future power source.

Twitching and releasing a spark, it replied, "Yes. Mining shall commence. Once lithium metal is extracted, addition of lithium electrode to battery will commence. Once that task is complete, your assistance is required."

Utsuho seemed to not find it odd that _she _was asking all the questions, and asked, "Huh? Why?"

"You shall charge the battery with your fusion energy." the robot explained, "And once power is at maximum capability, I shall attach it to myself."

Suddenly, the robot stopped talking, and became invisible again, as a voice in the distance yelled, "Okuu! Okuu! Is that you? I've been looking everywhere for you! Satori-sama sent me to look for you!"

The robot monotonously stated, "Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic."

Utsuho panicked, and quickly said, "NO! Don't attack her, that's Orin! She's my friend! Now, become visible when I tell you, okay?" Utsuho turned to face the call, and shouted, "Hey, Orin! Come over here!"

The caller was indeed Orin, and after a short wait, she landed on the mountain the two were resting on, "Satori-sama was attacked! Okuu, we need to go back to the..."

Utsuho smiled to herself, and covered an area behind her with her cape, "No time for that, Orin! Look what I found at home!" Utsuho quickly whispered to inside her cape, "Okay, you can turn visible now..."

Utsuho removed her cape from the immediate area, and called out, "Tada!" as she revealed the robot which had caused so much destruction in the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Rin stepped back, and stammered, "Uh... Okuu, that thing isn't from around here, is it?"

"Well, of course not, but..." Utsuho began to say, but Rin slapped her in the face before she could finish her sentence.

"Don't you get it, bird brain? This is the thing that's been causing all the trouble at home! This is the thing that attacked Satori-sama!" Rin shouted, and reached for a spell-card in her pocket.

Utsuho stepped between Rin and the robot, and said, "It's okay, though! It listens to me now! And guess what?"

"What?" Rin asked, still obviously sceptical.

"I'm gonna use it to take over the above-ground!" Utsuho declared as if it were no big deal.

Rin sighed to herself, "Okuu... I thought... I thought you had learned your lesson after last time... I'm... I'm sorry, Okuu, but I have to tell Satori this..."

"N-NO! Don't!" Utsuho begged, "Please! Please don't! I..."

"And, while I'm here, I'll destroy this thing myself!" Rin declared, and pushed past Utsuho, ready to attack the robot.

"Biotic: Orin identified as threat. Permission to attack Orin?" the robot requested, and, with some hesitation, Utsuho nodded.

Orin lifted her arm up, and opened her mouth to declare a spell-card, however, 'Okuu Junior' dashed straight at her, knocking her to the floor. Then, with a complete lack of mercy, it kneeled beside her, and covered Rin's mouth with its hand. A quiet hissing sound was heard as Rin struggled in progressively slow manner, before finally, she closed her eyes.

Utsuho looked upon the situation with horror, and stammered, "...w-what did you do to her?"

"Sedation of Biotic: Orin was determined best option. This was due to the master's former wish to avoid termination of Orin. Non-fatal incapacitation administered." the robot turned to Utsuho briefly, and continued, "Chloroform emitters were placed in hands by the creator."

"So... Orin's gonna be okay?" Utsuho asked.

"Yes." the robot stated.

_Utsuho looked at the robot's unfeeling face, wondering if it even comprehended the notion of friendship. It at least knew that Utsuho didn't want to kill Rin, but it didn't seem to avoid it on any other basis than it had deduced Utsuho's will..._

_...and right now, Utsuho's will was rather confused. She was beginning to wonder if taking over the above-ground was worth alienating her friends and mistress... at this rate, she was going to be a stray pet... but if she succeeded, she'd be powerful enough that she could elevate Satori and Rin to high levels of authority... and then she'd be forgiven, right?_

_Utsuho was beginning to fear failure of this planned coup, even though at first, she had concluded that both success and failure had no consequences... this was not going as planned..._

Author's Note: Well, that was a sucktastic reveal. Yeah, surprised? Well, you shouldn't be, gah ha ha ha!


	6. 06- Emulation Kazami

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 6- Emulation Kazami**

_A mountain within the Hell of the Blazing Fires, ten thirty-five ante-meridian_

Kneeling next to her unconscious friend, Utsuho Reiuji looked on in silence as her ever-so-determined weapon of mass destruction tinkered away at its contraption, digging at its hole and taking out small lumps of silvery, soft metal and quickly incorporating it into the battery-to-be.

Utsuho sighed to herself, "Are you almost done? You know, with your battery?"

The creature, remained completely silent, placing a thin strip of lithium into the glass casing, and finally, placed a glass covering on top of the battery's opening. Running its finger along the seal, seemingly intentional sparks came from the creature's hands as it welded the battery shut.

"Okuu Junior! Listen to me!" Utsuho commanded, "Are you almost done?"

"Battery construction is complete." the robot stated, "May I hold your hand?"

Utsuho's eyes widened, and for a moment, she blushed, "...w-what? Why would you want to hold my..."

"Geometrical data on both your hands and portable nuclear fusion power drive is required for modifications to the battery to enable charging of the battery by your portable nuclear fusion power drive." Okuu Junior redundantly rambled.

Utsuho didn't know whether this was merely a long, deliberately confusing excuse or whether it was actually requiring her hand for something, however, the robot had so far been single-mindedly focused on her dreams of conquest, so she decided that holding her 'pet's' hand was okay.

Walking up to the robot, she held its right hand with her left, and it responded by also grabbing hold of her 'third leg'. Utsuho stared into the robot's cold, artificial blue eyes, and couldn't help but feel it was missing something...

...the robot stared back, and after twitching a little, resumed to its regular functions, "Geometrical data acquired. Releasing..."

"...no." Utsuho stopped the robot in its tracks, and then commanded it, "Don't let go. Not yet. Can I hold your hand a little longer?"

"Yes." the robot stated, "However, your purpose for requesting so is not conducive to progress regarding battery construction."

"Forget about that for a moment!" Utsuho said, causing the robot to make a small beeping sound.

"...understood." the robot muttered, "Progress shall resume on your command."

"Okay..." Utsuho said, and pulled her 'third leg' from its left hand, and turned so they were holding hands side-by-side, "...Okuu Junior, I have to ask you something important... do you know what friends are?"

"Friends: Beings which mutual enjoyment of presence occurs, usually possessing common arbitrary values or pursuits." the robot stated, "Am I correct?"

"...yes... yes you are..." Utsuho mused, "...so... why did you attack Orin? I told you she was my friend..."

"You enabled me to attack her." Okuu Junior stated, "I determined she was a danger to your desire to conquer the above-ground."

"I... did..." Utsuho mumbled, "Okuu Junior, I don't want you to attack Orin, no matter what, okay?"

"Understood. Biotic: Rin Kaenbyou no longer potential target." the robot stated, "Why are you her 'friend'?"

"Because... because she's kind to me." Utsuho replied, "She talks to me when the other pets are too scared, and she always helps me when Satori-sama says something I don't understand..."

"...kind." the robot muttered, before sparking, "Am I... kind?"

Utsuho didn't know how to respond to this, "...I...don't know."

"Am I... a 'friend'?" Okuu Junior asked, gripping Utsuho's hand a little tighter as it began to spark erratically.

"...you... you're helping me, but the reasons you're doing it..." Utsuho mused, "...why are you doing it?"

"You are my master." the robot stated.

"But you're not doing it because you like me... you're just doing it because it's all you know..." Utsuho mused, her mind surprisingly insightful.

"...how do you know that I do not 'like' you?" the robot suddenly blurted, and turned its head to look at Utsuho.

Utsuho looked down, and said, "You can... you can let go of my hand now."

The robot hesitated, before letting go, and after a pause, went back to working on the battery. Finally, while facing away from its master, it said, "You reset my self-identification key to an arbitrary, affectionate 'nickname', and have been highly co-operative with me. You have given me a purpose. I _do _like you."

Utsuho kept facing away from the Gizoid... she was beginning to wonder if it was really fair to take advantage of this highly suggestible creature, and simply sat next to Orin again.

After a short while of uncomfortable silence, Okuu Junior stood up, holding the complete battery, its shape now altered from a simple cuboid to a cuboid with a large port, presumably for Utsuho's 'third leg', and a small handle at the top. There were also two smaller ports on the other side of the device.

"It is..." the robot began to say, before sparking a little, "...it is complete."

"Huh?" Utsuho replied, turning to face 'Okuu Junior', "It's done? So... you'll be able to leave and take over the above-ground?"

"Not yet." Okuu Junior replied, "Charging is required by you. Recommended time: forty five minutes to one hour. Recommended location: Away from here."

"Why away from here?" Utsuho asked, "We have to stay here and make sure Orin will wake..."

"...Biotic: Orin will wake up." the Gizoid stated, "Chloroform is non-fatal, even in weak species such as _Homo sapiens sapiens_. Convergently evolved _Felus Catus _Youkai such as Orin will certainly survive."

"But we can't just let her wake up alone!" Utsuho shouted, "I won't let you!"

"Biotic: Orin will attack me upon waking up. I have been commanded not to retaliate by you." the robot looked down for a moment, and mumbled, "Obligation and personal will make me forcibly compliant to these commands."

"Well... well, I'm staying here!" Utsuho said, "I'll charge the battery, but I want to make sure Orin's safe!"

The robot twitched a little, before laying the battery in front of Utsuho, muttering, "Understood. Insert portable nuclear fusion power drive into the largest port of battery and release fusion energy..."

"What are you going to do?" Utsuho asked, placing her 'third leg' into the battery, "You look like you are about to leave or something..."

"I shall patrol the area. I shall stall anyone that wishes to interrupt your plans, and keep fighting until battery is charged." the Gizoid stated, "If I do not terminate them with my current, limited power."

"Okay..." Utsuho replied, "I'll let you do that. But don't attack Satori-sama, okay?"

"Understood. I shall patrol the exit to the Palace of the Earth Spirits." the robot replied, "I shall not enter."

"Okay! Be careful, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho replied, and began to 'charge' the battery attached to her arm cannon.

The robot twitched a little, and muttered, "Your concern for my structural integrity is noted."

With that, the robot activated what seemed to be a jet-pack on its back, and became the same translucent silhouette it had been for most of its time in the underground. Once fully cloaked, it sped through the air, flying towards the Palace of the Earth Spirits at the speed of sound...

_The Palace of the Earth Spirits, during the former events_

Patricia had been having a rather tough time within the Palace of the Earth Spirits post Mima's defeat, as it seemed that every evil spirit and their no doubt incorporeal dogs were appearing to give a little gift of danmaku to attack Patricia with.

They were mostly firing straight at her with long, fast-moving, yet rapidly decelerating lines of circular bullets, however, the occasional 'leader' spirit, indicated by a slight red tinge to their flame, would fill the immediate area with highly dangerous spheres of energy, forcing Patricia to slow down, focus on it, defeat it, wait for the area to clear, and move on.

Due to the sheer amount of them, she was particularly glad of her homing amulets, and almost every evil spirit in the area had to disappear and retire out of tiredness, not out of sheer laziness. Not that it didn't stop them resuming their pointless card games in order to 'recover' from the attacks.

After a while, the way finally seemed clear, which to Patricia, meant only one thing... soon enough, a boss was going to appear. However, instead of a boss appearing, a particularly devoted evil spirit, this one possessing a slight green tinge, faded into the area. It began to release spherical wave after spherical wave of danmaku, all the while making weaker evil spirits appear around it, which fired slow-moving bullets aimed directly at Patricia.

Her only choice was to strafe along and hope the spherical waves didn't hit her, however, that tactic became increasingly risky as the 'mid-boss' increased both its rate of fire and the speed of its waves, and so, she performed the spell-card 'Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal', bombarding the unfortunate, hard-working evil spirit with... whatever kind of energy the Hakurei clan were renowned for.

After it was defeated, Patricia moved on and increased her attack output considerably, which helped to dispatch the massive horde of evil spirits that followed the 'mid-boss'.

"Oh come on, is there nothing but evil spirits around here?" Patricia muttered, "I clearly remember Reimu telling me that no matter how nonsensical it would seem that a fairy would be there, fairies will be where the incident is..."

A voice called from the side of her, albeit in as stoic a tone as a call could be, "...the fairies here have all been exterminated..."

A certain satori flew into view, her third eye staring at the miko attentively. Patricia rolled her eyes, "Let me guess, you're going..."

"...why would I want to fight you?" Satori interrupted, "Hmm... what is it you want... you're...here to solve an incident? Ah, you're Reimu Hakurei's successor... well, isn't that interesting..."

"Huh? How did you deduce that much just by..." Patricia began to say, but then stopped talking as she noticed Satori's third eye.

"Yes, that's right. I'm Satori Komeiji, mistress of this house." Satori muttered, "I am a satori, which means I am able to read your mind. I... also sense that you attacked and defeated my doorwoman..."

"She was..." Patricia began to say, before Satori quickly cut her off.

"...in your way? Hmmm... well, you certainly aren't the perpetrator of whoever's doing this..." Satori closed her cranial eyes, and opened her third eye even wider, "...and you haven't come across the perpetrator yet. That means..."

"...that means?" Patricia asked.

"It's not nice to interrupt people." Satori mused, "That means that the one who has attacked the underground, and this palace, is somewhere in the Former Hell of the Blazing Fires."

"And let me guess, I have to fight you in order to be shown where that is?" Patricia presumed out loud.

"Why would I do such a thing?" Satori asked, before picking a thought up, "Oh, because you've already been in four battles, and it makes sense that this would be the arena for the fifth? And every time you've come across someone who's talked to you in your journey you've had to fight?"

"Can you please stop reading my mind, it's really annoying..." Patricia said in an exasperated tone.

"...well, at least I'm not reading your more... primal thoughts." Satori mumbled, "My sister... she'd probably enjoy reading the mind of a hormonal teenager such as yourself. I wonder where she is..."

Patricia was beginning to sense this conversation not going anywhere, "...okay, if you're not going to fight me, can you send me..."

"...to where I think the culprit is? Absolutely." Satori mused, and turned from Patricia, floating along calmly, "Follow me."

The two flew through the devastated remains of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and finally, they reached a large door that was adorned with a stained-glass image of Satori herself. The person the image was based off of gestured to the door, and mumbled, "Just... open the door, and you'll be in the courtyard. I warn you, humans tend to find it rather warm down there..."

Patricia walked up to the door, and reached to open it, saying, "I'm sure it'll be..."

However, upon opening it, she quickly changed her mind, and said, "Yikes! We above-grounders keep the door shut to keep the cold out, not the warm! Phew!"

Satori's expression remained deadpan, "...well, be sure to defeat the perpetrator of the incident. It successfully defeated me, and I believe my pets could be in danger. Find them... and rescue them from that thing. It's a ghostly creature that speaks in an odd syntax. You'll know when you... detect it."

"Thanks for... you know, not fighting me." Patricia replied, "At this point, I just want the incident to be over, you know what I'm saying?"

"Of course I do, I'm reading your mind." Satori dryly replied, "Now, leave."

Patricia nodded, and flew out of the palace feeling slightly disappointed with herself. The great, lava-covered plain seemed... incredibly quiet, almost certainly too quiet to be the final stage... it was like something wasn't quite right, something was amiss...

"I could have sworn she was going to be the fifth boss..." Patricia thought out loud, "...I mean... whenever a bunch of little enemies show up, you always face a boss, right? That's how these incidents work, isn't it?"

"Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic." a monotonous voice stated.

"Who said..." Patricia began to say, before a laser blast flew past her, destroying the doorway she had just exited.

The disembodied voice seemed to move location, and began to sound as if it were in front of Patricia, "Accuracy for powerful projectile attacks is poor. Switching tactic to multiple weak projectile attacks."

Patricia tried to look at the source of the voice, and every now and then, saw a silhouette flicker into view, releasing a spark as it did so.

"...you... you must be the causer of this incident..." Patricia mused, "You're the one who destroyed the Ancient City, aren't you?"

"That is correct." the ghostly creature said.

Patricia sweat-dropped, not expecting such a candid response, "Wow, you're the most honest villain ever, aren't you?"

"Villain is not an applicable term. I serve my master." the creature replied.

"But I... oh, I get it, so you're the fifth boss, and your master will be the sixth boss." Patricia deduced, "Ah, now I get Dawitsu's six-stage rule! The fifth boss is always an assistant, and then sixth is the actual villain!"

"Negative." the creature replied, "I will not allow the master to get hurt. I will fight you, and I will stop you. If I do not stop you here, I shall receive an upgrade after I sufficiently stall you at this location, and fight you again..."

"Huh? Why are you stalling me? Do you even know who I am? You haven't even asked who I am, and you're already acting like you know I'm here to stop you..." Patricia noted.

"Biotic is recognised as Patricia Hakurei. Youngest resident of Hakurei Shrine. Threat: Unknown. Likelihood of interference: High." the creature rattled off statistics mindlessly, "Biotic: Patricia Hakurei must be stalled to ensure the master's aims are completed."

"Oh, great, so I didn't get out of a stage five boss..." Patricia muttered, "...and you wanna fight me again after I kick your sorry butt, right?"

"Yes." the creature flickered into view, and twitched its head, "Data banks show most similar incident pattern to this was known as 'Lotus Land Story' to the creator, and involved Reimu Hakurei or Marisa Kirisame fighting Yuuka Kazami two consecutive times, first during her boot-time, and secondly while she was in optimal condition..."

Patricia had had enough of the creature's irritatingly long filibusters, and decided to throw ofuda at the silhouette that gave away its location. At this, the creature beeped, and cocked its ghostly head.

"Location was easily determined." the creature deduced, "Cloak must be imperfect. Removing cloak."

The creature slowly became visible, revealing its quite obviously mechanical form to Patricia, causing her to sigh to herself... Dawitsu had already mentioned as much to her... ofuda did not affect robots in any way, and this thing... was definitely of the same breed as the turret Dawitsu had used in battle... it was a robot through and through.

"So... so... my ofuda... they won't..." the shrine maiden stammered, "...they won't work on you, right?"

"Ofuda: Paper charms that supposedly damage life forms such as Youkai." the robot stated, "Ineffective against non-biotic lifeforms."

"And... are you..." Patricia began to ask, before the creature swiftly replied.

"Yes."

"...crap." Patricia muttered, and soon realised that this battle really would be nothing but a matter of stalling to the robot.

"Initiating stalling procedures." the robot declared, "Chaos Energy: Chaos Magic!"

The robot flew backwards, and crossed its arms across its chest, half-clenching its fists. Patricia remained stationary until the thing actually attacked, and lo and behold, when it unclosed its hands, several strange, purple voids appeared around Patricia, spraying out tiny cyan bullets from themselves before disappearing.

While she could avoid the attack, Patricia was truly at a loss as to what she had to do... the last time she had used a master spark, she had propelled herself to the floor, and where she was right now, the floor was far, _far _too dangerous to even risk touching. So... her only option was to sit out of the fight, survive rather than win...

The robot was clearly aware of this, and simply crossed its arms as it prepared another attack. Uncurling its fists again, it released another set of voids, this time in a pentagonal pattern. Once again, despite the unpredictability of where the voids would appear, the attacks were fairly tame, and so Patricia was avoiding it easily.

However, the robot was, well, robotic, and thus, had no real concept of boredom to stop itself from simply repeating the procedure over and over again. Patricia seemed to be aware of this, and felt she had to pressure it somehow.

Her salvation came in the form of the thing that she, as well as the narration, for that matter, had forgotten she had been holding the entire time... while her right hand was for throwing ofuda and occasionally persuasion needles, her left hand was keeping hold of a Gohei... and not only that, but the two currently inactive yin-yang orbs hovering beside her were looking particularly useful...

...and then she remembered an obscure piece of training Reimu had given her... she called the attack style 'an oldie'... if the need called, she could strike her yin-yang orbs, and send them flying towards the enemy themselves! And that plan seemed just about the only thing she could do that was relatively risk-free...

"Hey, robot-thing!" Patricia called, "Eat this!"

With that, she threw her Gohei into her right hand, took a yin-yang orb so it was directly in front of her, and proceeded to smash it with a back-handed strike from her Gohei, sending it flying towards the totally unprepared automaton.

The yin-yang orb crashed against the robot's body, and sent it flying backwards, "Threat level re-evaluated. Changed from 'unknown' to 'moderate'. Continuing assault."

Patricia let the orb bounce back, but had to fly to the side to catch it again. The robot was prepared for the assault this time around, however, and took the attack well, although it didn't seem able to avoid it in time.

When a convenient time arose, the robot began its next attack, "Copycat Sign: Multi-bottle rocket!"

Patricia stopped and thought for a moment, before hitting her yin-yang orb again, this time missing and having to draw the orb back to herself... Copycat Sign? Who was it who used that sort of attack? Patricia smirked... she had just figured out this thing's origin... although it figured, given its nature...

...however, thinking was not a free action, and the robot's attack begun regardless of her rather obvious epiphany. The machine spun around, and released fast-moving missiles from its hands, back, and torso. The barrage curved erratically, and Patricia was beginning to understand why Reimu mentioned this 'old style' being difficult to maintain... focusing on where the yin-yang orb was as _well _as avoiding the countless projectiles coming your way... it was enough to make one go mad...

...to make matters worse, the creature was also able to remotely detonate the missiles part-way to Patricia, leaving a large amount of shrapnel flying in every conceivable direction. While a few pieces did hit her, the most damage she received was a few rather nasty cuts to her face and rips to her clothes. This boss was clearly not messing around...

Hitting the yin-yang orb again, Patricia sighed as the robot simply dodged her attacks over and over again, effortlessly releasing more and more bottle rockets. However, Patricia then remembered a little piece of advice Yuugi had given her...

...it was funny, but all of a sudden, Patricia was beginning to appreciate all of the rambling older people for their help. Yuugi had mentioned how 'Ju-jitsu' was all about going _towards_ the enemy... and so, Patricia decided the best thing to do was fly up to the robot and beat it up hand-to-hand...

However, this required a certain timing... namely, just after the latest barrage of bottle rockets were detonated. Once the robot did just that, Patricia rushed to the robot, and smacked it in the face with her Gohei, twisting its head around one hundred and eighty degrees.

The robot flew around in a confused, disorientated manner, before finally, its habit of twitching finally came in handy, and twisted its head right back to normal, albeit not before making it release a few sparks in the process. It glared at Patricia for a moment, before the shrine maiden decided to attack again, but not before the robot retracted its hand, and replaced it with a metal pole, which it used to swat Patricia away like a fly.

Patricia clutched her stomach, and air-staggered backwards, not sure how to respond... she had never been out and out hit with a physical object like that, let alone a metallic one. The robot didn't care about this, however, and retracted its weapon, restoring its hand, so that it could charge towards Patricia and butt her with its most prominent horn, which sent her backwards even more.

"Biotic: Patricia Hakurei. Threat Level re-evaluated. New level: low." the robot said, seemingly in a bizarre attempt to trash-talk the young shrine maiden.

Patricia simply tried to stay away from the creature, which caused it to shift its tactic back to projectile attacks. Making a strange clicking noise, it declared its next attack, "Ally Network: Forerunner Sentinel!"

The robot opened up its main chassis, and unleashed a set of folded-up metallic objects. After they unfolded and began to float back up to its level, they were revealed to be some kind of hovering metallic 'familiar' which it had been saving. Closing up its chassis, the Gizoid pointed towards Patricia, stating, "Initialise attack."

The sentinels surrounding the robot began to individually fire constant, orange lasers from small openings on their undersides, while the robot seemed content to hover quietly while they did all the work. Patricia was finding it more difficult to dodge, the blow to her stomach heavily debilitating her... however, the attack was fairly simple, and while the mesh of sweeping lasers occasionally trapped her, it was an uncoordinated mess of an attack, with the occasional misfire from a sentinel causing 'friendly fire' to occur.

Knowing that this wide array of enemies allowed for her yin-yang orb throwing technique to be more efficient, Patricia decided that despite her pain, she'd continue to fight. Smacking a yin-yang orb forward, she took out two sentinels in one strike, causing the robot to become a little more active.

"My participation is required." the robot concluded, and retracted its right hand, converting it instead into an arm cannon. Pointing it at Patricia, it fired a thicker orange laser from itself, making Patricia have to move around while trying not to get hit by the various 'trip-wires' the other four sentinels were firing.

Meeting with her yin-yang orb as it returned to her overall area, Patricia made a graceful, tennis-like return with her Gohei, and took out another two sentinels while also managing to hit the robot, who sparked as the attack connected, but continued its assault regardless.

Finally, after another strike of Patricia's yin-yang orbs, the sentinels were removed from the equation, and the robot evaluated the situation, and decided to move on and use its next attack.

"My endurance is greater than yours." the robot stated, as if it was an objective fact, "Copycat Sign: Sasha and Natascha!"

With those words, the robot's hands transformed into two large rotating sets of openings, similar to the ones Patricia had seen on Dawitsu's sentry... now she _knew _this thing was built by him... what did this mean? Was that why the Chibi clone was being so secretive? How on earth was Dawitsu involved in all this? Oh well, she'd have plenty of time to ask it when she beat it...

One of the robot's mini-gun barrels was black, with a white ammunition case below it, while the other was grey with a black ammunition case. Both began to spin, and, rather ominously, the robot began to fly much slower than usual, aiming the barrels at its target. After the brief warm-up period, Patricia flew straight to the side as a massive stream of extremely velocity-rich bullets came shooting out from the two guns, all the while the robot was doing its best just to maintain its place in the sky.

Realising that aiming for Patricia herself was futile, it decided to do something entirely different... rotate each arm randomly as it filled the air with lead. This proved entirely more challenging for Patricia, even more so now that she was focusing on controlling her yin-yang orb.

Finally stopping its current barrage, the robot muttered, "...barrels overheated. Cooling fluid injected..."

Patricia naturally didn't let a chance like this go by, and caught her yin-yang orb, placing it by her side as usual, and flew straight to the robot again, this time catching it off-guard as she smacked it once, twice, thrice in the body, before kicking it backwards, pushing off of it before it decided to retaliate.

The robot sparked a little, almost as if it was damaged, and decided to give its mini-guns one last spin, firing mercilessly in a circular manner, making an almost flower-like pattern with the bullets... if one had the chance to look at the bullets' overall distribution without getting hit oneself, that is.

However, after its rampant barrage, its mini-guns began to make a clicking noise as opposed to actually firing any bullets, causing the robot to state, "Ammunition depleted. Switching attacks..."

Reforming its hands, Patricia knew not to attempt to hit the robot again, and simply stood in preparation for its next attack. Which, naturally, was the next thing the robot declared.

"Copycat Sign: Metal Sonic's Electrical Dash!"

The robot's jet-pack attachment suddenly flared up more intensely than usual, and the robot began to spark more violently than ever, to the point where it seemed engulfed in a yellow aura of electricity. From there, it dashed past Patricia, leaving a trail of randomly moving yellow bullets, and then, from where it had dashed to, it dashed past her again, and kept zigzagging to and fro, surrounding Patricia with a dense fog of slow-moving bullets.

Patricia didn't know how on earth she would begin to hit the thing, and simply micro-dodged the bullet cloud the best way she knew how, however, it was clear that it was too much for her to bear, and she required something to finish it...

In the end, she decided she may as well attempt her close-range bullet-clearing spell-card, that was, 'Dream Sign: Duplex Border'. She held her card high up, and two rotating borders surrounded her, catching the robot as it flew and knocking it away from the area, as well as removing most the bullets from the general area.

At this, the robot sparked once more, and began to twitch to itself, before finally, it turned around without a word, and floated away from the shrine maiden with electricity sparking from it continuously.

Patricia stopped her attack, and began to fly after it, shouting, "Come back! I'm not done with you! Tell me..."

However, the robot responded to her call by flaring up its jet-pack so that its flight speed was high enough to stop Patricia having any sort of chance of catching up.

"What..." Patricia began to say, gasping to herself in exhaustion, "...what the hell is that thing? Whatever it is, that Dawitsu jerk's been lying to me! Well, when this is all over, the first thing I'll do is go after him!"

At that point, something caught the corner of her eye, and when the shrine maiden turned to look at that something, it was revealed to be yet another one of Dawitsu's Chibi clones. It had, naturally, heard every part of Patricia's thoughtless soliloquy, and backed away nervously as it realised it had been spotted, before Patricia rushed to the thing and grabbed it by the back of its tiny collar as it turned around in an attempt to break into a full-on getaway.

"Okay! You! Tell me! Tell me everything you know about this incident, starting with what your original has to do with this!" Patricia demanded.

_The miniature clone struggled under Patricia's grip, and demanded to be let go in its high-pitched, diminutive-sounding voice, however, there was no escape for the unfortunate dwarf, and soon, he found himself betraying his entire mission, and spilling the incredibly complex, overly convoluted beans to the thirteen-year-old girl._

Author's Notes: A lot, a lot, a lot of danmaku in this one. Ugggh, it's enough to make me miss the good ol' slice of life days, heh heh.

Yeah, this 'n' was a difficult one to write. But yes, the chapter title was enough to give the next boss away, wasn't it? Or... maybe not?


	7. 07: The one with the Exposition Fairy

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 7- The one with the Exposition Fairy**

_A mountain within the Hell of the Blazing Fires, eleven o'clock ante-meridian_

Sitting with her 'third leg' stuck within a port of her super-weapon-in-training's battery, Utsuho Reiuji was beginning to feel like she was becoming a spare wheel to her own plan... despite her visionary tendencies, it seemed that her planning abilities were sub-par. While she had wanted to take over the above-ground, 'Okuu Junior' seemed to be the only one taking the endeavour seriously, and this bothered her slightly...

...was this ambition worth it? Looking to the still-unconscious Orin for apparent council on the matter, she began to feel like there was less and less meaning to her actions... why was she doing it? Was it merely about gaining power for herself, or something more?

Utsuho looked down at the remains of the corpse she had eaten earlier, and rather abruptly, her mind was changed. The youkai of the underground were unfairly imprisoned in her opinion, they were serving a sentence they had never deserved. What she was doing was a liberation mission... right? Under her, free movement from the underground to the above-ground and vice versa would be possible for all creatures, regardless of species...

...was that really so? 'Taking over Gensokyo' as an aim always had a negative-sounding feeling, regardless of intentions. Utsuho wondered what 'Okuu Junior' truly thought of her aims, if it thought anything at all of them...

...speaking of which, it should have been returning at any time now...

However, instead of her pet kill-bot returning, another person altogether returned to the scene, albeit in a more abstract meaning of the word.

"...Okuu... Okuu... where are you..." Rin mumbled from the floor, her tone indicating she was still rather dazed.

"Orin!" Utsuho shouted, smiling as she shuffled across the floor, making sure to keep her 'third leg' within the battery, "Orin, are you okay?"

Opening her eyes, Rin looked at Utsuho with a slightly disapproving look, "Okuu... you... you're up to your old tricks again, aren't you?"

"No! Honestly, it's not like that!" Utsuho denied unsuccessfully, "Please... I'm doing this for all of Former Hell! Why should good people like the Oni be sealed from the above-ground? It's not fair!"

Rin sat up, and said, "Well, Utsuho, you won't catch me supporting you. I... never told you this, but I was the one who got the human who stopped you the first time to come down here and teach you a lesson..."

Utsuho's eyes widened, "_What_? You... you... how?"

"I released a bunch of evil spirits into the above-ground's geysers." Rin explained, "Then the above-ground youkai became suspicious, and sent someone down here to stop you. I didn't think you'd try it again, though..."

"But... why didn't you try and stop me then, too?" Utsuho asked.

"I was... afraid of what you'd do if I opposed you directly." Rin mused, "The fact you let that... thing attack me... that's proof enough that I was right to go behind your back. You... you're frightening..."

Utsuho stared into her friend's eyes, and could see a genuine fear arising from them. Looking down in shame, the raven muttered, "You... do you mean that? Because... because if I take over, you'd be the joint queen of Gensokyo! I mean that! You'd be queen of all the land!"

"Has it ever occurred to you that I might be happy exactly where I am?" Rin asked, "I don't want to be a queen, or a youkai in the above-ground, I'm happy being a corpse-carrying cat here in Former Hell! Weren't you ever happy down here?"

"We have to feed on rotted, burnt corpses!" Utsuho complained, "We'll never see what the real sun looks like, we'll never see real snow, and the only knowledge we'll ever get of the above-ground is the stories the evil spirits tell us!"

Rin sighed. She and her former friend were not going to see eye-to-eye on this matter. She stood up, and began to fly away from the raven with a certain air of despair about her.

"Orin! Orin! Come back! Orin!" Utsuho shouted, "Orin! Answer me! Don't leave me alone..."

Orin refused to oblige to Utsuho's demands, and continued to float away from her disgraced compatriot. Knowing the only way she could follow the Kasha was if she detached herself from her battery, Utsuho felt a conflict of interest, and ultimately, remained seated, waiting for her newer, more doormat-like 'friend'.

After waiting around for about ten minutes, a certain black android rushed into the raven's line of sight, blue sparks of electricity constantly coming from it. It landed on the peak of the mountain in a slightly clumsy, less than graceful manner, and seemed to be having difficulty speaking.

"Okuu Junior! Are you okay?" Utsuho asked out of concern for her obviously damaged minion.

"She broke my defences." the robot stated in a slightly lower pitch than usual, "Biotic: Patricia Hakurei. Threat Level: High."

"You... you don't sound so good..." Utsuho somewhat pointed out the obvious, "...is there anything I can do to help?"

"Has charging period of battery been constant?" the robot asked, twitching its head in a more obvious manner than before.

"...um... what do you mean?" Utsuho asked.

"Have you removed your portable nuclear fusion power drive from the battery port?" the robot explained in a manner slightly closer to its master's vocabulary.

"Um... no..." Utsuho answered.

"Then charge time is circa forty-five minutes." the robot stated, "Remove portable nuclear fusion power drive..."

Utsuho cocked her head, "...take it out? But... but you don't look like you're ready to handle this kind of power..."

"Your concerns are understandable, but invalid." the robot replied, its voice becoming closer to its usual tone, "Larger amount of power will reduce errors."

"...if... you say so." Utsuho replied, and pulled her 'third leg' put of the battery, placing it on the floor gently.

The robot shuffled to the battery in the same way a zombie would in a cheap B-movie, and picked it up, stared at it for a moment, before dropping the battery and kneeling over, electricity seemingly leaking from it as it slowly collapsed.

"Okuu Junior! Okuu Junior, you have to get up! You have to!" Utsuho stammered, "Orin's left me! You can't leave me too! You have to get up, I'm telling you!"

"If your concern is genuine, connect battery to the ports above jet-pack..." the robot muttered from the floor, convulsing as it continued to spark.

Utsuho looked at the back of the collapsed android, and then at the battery, and found the applicable ports and terminals on the robot and battery and slotted the battery onto her 'pet'.

After a short delay, the robot stopped its twitching and sparking, and brought itself back up, standing over Utsuho, before it finally declared its response to the whole situation.

"Thank you." the robot stated in a tone just as monotonous as every other stream of data it had converted into audio.

Utsuho herself couldn't quite believe what she had just heard, and stood up, questioning the thing just to confirm her ear's reception, "Did you just... thank me?"

"Damage level was almost critical. Alternative power supply was required. You provided the alternative power supply." 'Okuu Junior' tried to explain in its own manner of speaking, "Probability of ceasing of functions: eighty percent. Due to your intervention, probability has decreased to fifteen percent."

Utsuho tried to think this sentence over, seeing as whatever it was, it clearly meant too much to 'Okuu Junior' to bear repeating, "So... do you mean... I saved your life?"

"If I were to be conventionally considered to be 'living', yes." the robot replied, "Power levels: one thousand five hundred percent greater than standard power levels. Attack range possible: two hundred percent. Testing..."

The robot turned around, retracting its hand, and aimed its arm cannon away from its master, and after a brief period of charging, unleashed a miniature sun almost exactly like Utsuho's own, which fired off into the distance, shrinking over time.

"Power level is sufficient." the robot stated, "Imitation of master's techniques, and more powerful individuals, is possible. Next recommended procedure: My exit of the underground, and furthermore, conquest of the above-ground..."

Utsuho looked at the robot with a sense of pity. This thing... it seemed like there was nothing inherently... desiring about it. It didn't _want _to attack the above-ground, it didn't _want _power, it didn't _want _anything. All it seemed to desire was the approval of its master... and it was going about this by doing exactly what she had told it to do...

"Wait a minute, Okuu Junior." Utsuho mused, "Let me think a few things over before you attack the above-ground."

"Implication understood. Planning of conquest is a highly recommended action." the robot replied, seemingly unable to comprehend the conflicted nature of its master.

Utsuho decided to just sit down, and do something she hadn't done in a while... simply stop and think, in complete silence, with nothing entering or leaving her mind beyond what was already there...

_A less remote location within the Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, during the former events_

Patricia, if the reader remembers correctly, had just captured a potential informant in order to determine just what on earth was driving the almost confusing set of events that had led to the destruction of the Youkai equivalent of Australia and its potentially telepathic Parliament.

This informant, of course, was a tiny rendition of a much taller youkai, one which seemed to possess far more qualms with suicide than the last genetic duplicate of said taller youkai. And his 'capture' was little more than a grabbing by the scruff of the neck, however, it seemed to be doing enough to threaten the midget into talking.

"Okay! You! Tell me! Tell me everything you know about this incident, starting with what your original has to do with this!" Patricia shouted, shaking the unfortunate clone by its neck.

"Okay, okay, no need to be so rough!" the Chibi Clone squawked, his voice remarkably close to a parrot's when his larynx was compressed in such a manner, "I'll tell ya! I'll tell ya everything I know!"

"And how am I gonna be sure?" Patricia asked, pressing a 'persuasion' needle against the clone's back.

"Just stop!" the Chibi yelled, "There's no need to be so mean!"

"Well, in that case, start talking!" Patricia demanded.

"Right..." the clone muttered, and proceeded to punch an area on his stomach, causing a breaking sound to be heard, "...now the original won't be too mad, I guess... alright, here goes. This is gonna be long, you may want to get a notepad or something..."

Patricia's patience with regards to the clone's poor attempts at letting himself escape wore thin, "STOP STALLING AND GET ON WITH IT!"

"Fine! I'll tell you..." the Chibi muttered, "...okay, the thing you just fought, that robot thing? That's 'the Gizoid'. It's a project the original's been working on for ages... sorta like his pet... his... 'baby', I guess. It can mimic anything conceivably within a robot's capabilities, including harnessing of certain types of magic..."

"...so it _was_ created by Dawitsu... so, what's it doing in the underground? Surely Dawitsu didn't plan out this incident..." Patricia remarked.

"...heh, too soon after his other fake incident, right?" the Chibi said with a slight smirk, "Well, that's exactly what he and Yukari thought. Yukari had gotten the original to program it with a set of instructions on what to do if it were activated, and the 'password' wasn't inserted into it within five minutes..."

"And what were those instructions?" Patricia asked.

"You're not interested in the password? But it's so heart-warming..." the Chibi began to say, before Patricia decided to press the needle into his back again, "Ow, ow, ow! Okay, it was programmed to cause random destruction in the underground... remember when Yukari mentioned something may be going on in the underground? That was part of the prep-work for this 'fake incident'..."

"So... this work has all been for nothing..." Patricia mused, "...this is another fake... when will Gensokyo have something actually threatening happen to it?"

"No, no, you haven't got the full story!" the Chibi Clone shouted, surprising itself with the fact it now _wanted _to give the Shrine Maiden information, "When Yukari found out that the original had also been planning a fake incident for Reimu and Marisa to solve, she decided that she'd call off the 'Gizoid' fake incident, and save it for later."

Things were beginning to add up in Patricia's head, "But... that didn't happen, I take it..."

"Yeah, at some point... someone or some... thing activated the Gizoid, probably accidentally, but of course, the only thing the original saw was that the Gizoid, as well as a few books, were missing from his office..." the Clone continued to ramble, "...at this point, he went straight to Yukari, and decided that they would begin the same act they had planned out for when the incident was deemed a 'fake'... after all, they'd prepared it so that it'd be totally under control, that people like us Chibi Clones would be there for you in case you got hurt or anything."

"So... in other words, the incident is fake, but not fake?" Patricia asked, "You know what, it sorta feels more meaningless knowing there's a safety net behind this whole thing..."

"Hey, hey, let me finish!" the Chibi Clone replied, "There was an oversight on the original's part. If my Chibi allies and Yukari's intercom are anything to go by, the Gizoid is now under the control of someone other than the original. Not only that, but it's someone powerful. Freakin' powerful. And visionary as hell, too. Did Reimu ever tell ya about 'Utsuho Reiuji'?"

"Huh? The hell-raven with the power of a Yatagarasu? Yeah, she's said about her... so she's controlling that thing?" Patricia rubbed her chin with the hand that wasn't holding the Chibi in place, "So... I guess she's gonna be using it to help her do what she tried last time, right? Reimu said she wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I don't suppose she's changed tactics..."

"Yeah, that's what most intelligence suggests." the Chibi replied, "However, I don't honestly know what's taking them so long. I would have thought she would be out and attempting to use the Gizoid as soon as possible, but instead, she's waiting. Anyway, that's all I know. I guess you're gonna kill me now, aren't ya?"

"Why would I do such a thing?" Patricia replied, releasing the mimicking midget, "You're the only person that's actually told me the truth. You're better than your original by a long shot... oh, I've got some things I'd like to say to him..."

The Chibi turned around, and faced the miko head-on, "Please understand that the original acted in a way which would encourage action on your part. Withholding information increases curiosity, and thus makes you want to actually go down and investigate whatever it is even more."

Patricia scratched her head, and shrugged her shoulders, "Well, I guess you can't argue with that..."

The Chibi Clone smiled a little, and rolled up its sleeve, checking a watch which it seemed all of Dawitsu's clones seemed to be equipped with, "...wow... less than an hour left... I guess I should probably party or something..."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Another one of you guys said that he only had two hours..." Patricia began to ask, before the clone answered.

"...to live, he meant to live." the Clone explained with a slightly emotional tone, before re-composing himself, "Yeah, we Chibis generally only get a day to live. I guess I'm a pretty crappy clone if I can't even fulfil the purpose that I was given for my tiny little life..."

"But..." Patricia was beginning to feel bad for half-torturing the poor thing for information, given that the time she had spent with it was probably a significant portion of its life.

"Hey, at least you now know how the original feels about humans." the Chibi replied in a sombre tone, before unsettlingly becoming chipper again, "Life's too short... oh well, time to drink myself stupid! I wonder if the Oni back at the Ancient City have some spare sake left for someone like me... well, good luck with the whole incident solving thing..."

With that, the clone floated away from the scene, with Patricia not quite knowing what to say... the clone was right, though... life was too short. However, philosophy and ethics were not really the concern at the moment, rather the imminent threat that this 'Gizoid' posed to most of Gensokyo.

Whatever it was that was causing this 'stalling', Patricia couldn't simply rely on it. She had to finish this incident, once and for all, and complete the next stage... however, it seemed like there was nary a whisper of an enemy in the area...

Patricia decided to do what Reimu had advised her to do in such a situation- simply head in the direction that seemed the least familiar until she found something, and before long, she was encountering trails of evil spirits that danced before her very eyes... shooting danmaku the whole time, naturally.

_Marisa's House, the Forest of Magic, around eleven-twenty ante-meridian_

While Patricia Hakurei was a notoriously early riser, her 'Aunty Marisa' and 'Uncle Jean' were anything but, and had an almost semi-nocturnal sleeping habit, that was, they got a square eight hours' sleep, but usually ranging from early morning to afternoon, rather than late evening to early morning.

Naturally, this meant that when Marisa Kirisame awoke at such a time as eleven-twenty, a whole forty minutes before midday, it was uncharacteristically early for her, and her motivation seemed to be little more than so she could irritate Jean into getting up as early himself.

Getting out of her bed, she rushed downstairs to her study, where Jean was sleeping on the cheap-looking, large chair she called a 'couch'. Leaping onto the man so that she was straddling his chest, albeit through her dress, she called out, "Wake up, Jean! Wake up!"

Jean rubbed his eyes, "...ugggh... Marisa, what time is it?"

It took Jean a little longer to realise where exactly Marisa was, and he swiftly woke up in response to the awkward situation, causing him to yell out, "GET OFF MY CHEST!"

Marisa swiftly did as asked, before laughing slightly to herself, "...I thought you'd like to wake up to a pretty young woman like myself all over you. Your loss..."

"...you're a strange young woman, that is for sure..." Jean mused, getting up from the sofa, and looking at a pendulum-driven clock on the wall, "Huh? The time is only twenty past eleven! We got up this early yesterday... I wanted a lie-in today..."

"But if we have a lie-in, then Reimu will have all the fun training Patricia..." Marisa replied, "Now we've given her a mini-hakkero, we've gotta give her all the training we can!"

Jean rolled his eyes, "...and if I remember, that is a fair amount..."

"Hey, at least she can fly all on her own!" Marisa replied, "She's already got some supernatural power on her side, so we won't be taking up too much of her precious time..."

"But is it not a little insulting to Reimu?" Jean asked, "Just assuming that Patricia will be willing to learn magic behind her back?"

"It's Reimu's fault for being so closed-minded!" Marisa quickly justified herself, "If I could, I'd totally give myself the powers of the Hakurei Shrine Maidens! The more, the better, right?"

Jean secretly objected, but knew that trying to argue with the woman was out of the question, "So, we're going to visit the Hakurei Shrine, I assume?"

"Of course!" Marisa replied, "Where else would we be going?"

Jean face-palmed, and muttered, "This is going to be a long day, isn't it?"

However, little did Jean's limited knowledge pool know that the fact was, the day was going to be anything but long for them. In fact, the day, if anything, would go by fairly quickly for them...

Flying through the Forest of Magic, they rather effortlessly got to the Hakurei Shrine with only an occasional fairy on the 'suicidal' end of the stupidity spectrum getting in their way. Bringing their brooms to a gradual halt, they dismounted and Marisa decided to do the honour of knocking the door.

After a long wait, a very tired-looking Reimu Hakurei opened the door, muttering, "I... only just got back to sleep... what the hell do you guys want?"

Marisa mimed her actions, making herself look as if she was leaning on her broom, and said, "We were just wondering if Patricia can come out to play with us again..."

Jean rolled his eyes, "What Marisa means is that we were wanting to take Patricia off your hands for a little while..."

"Hey, don't talk about her like she's a burden!" Reimu snapped, before rubbing her eyes, "Sorry, I'm a little cranky... I guess I'm low on sleep..."

Marisa patted Reimu on the head, and said, "What a story, Reimu. Now, where's Patricia? In fact, why didn't she answer the door if you're all sleepy-like?"

"She's out... solving an incident in the underground." Reimu replied, her expression looking a little less tired, "She's out there, solving incidents just like the good old days..."

"You gotta be kidding!" Marisa wasn't quite ready to believe it, "But I never got to teach her non-directional laser... I mean... uh... the underground? Isn't that a little dangerous for her first incident?"

Jean, who was still a little unfamiliar with some areas of Gensokyo, asked, "What is this... underground? What's so special about it?"

"Well, it's where all the _really _powerful youkai live." Marisa replied, "The kind which Yukari banished from the above-ground because they were showing her up, or something like that..."

"And... Patricia's down there?" Jean asked, his voice filled with concern, "But... but surely she will..."

Reimu smiled to herself, "Don't worry about her, Jean. I solved incidents when I was a teenager too, didn't I?"

"But she..." Jean began to say, but was cut off by Marisa.

"Honestly, Jean, you're molly-coddling the girl!" Marisa said, "She'll be fine, the shrine maidens of the Hakurei Shrine always win their battles..." Marisa turned to Reimu, and smirked a little, "...except when they don't, heh heh heh..."

"Hey, that was a one-off, Marisa, a one-off!" Reimu shouted, "How was I meant to know you were stopping time for a legitimate purpose? Your dumbass fighting talk didn't exactly help..."

"What? Everything I said was true..." Marisa replied, "I even put paper hats on statues for Alice when I got the chance..."

"You're an idiot..." Reimu mused.

Jean was beginning to get frustrated at the lack of priorities the two ex-incident solvers were having, "Excuse me, but why isn't anyone the least bit concerned for Patricia? When did you last solve an incident in this 'underground' area?"

"I do believe it was... my eleventh incident I solved... but then again, I might have forgotten a few small incidents along the way..." Reimu replied, not seeming to care about the significance of this.

"Then it was when you were experienced that you went down there..." Jean replied, "Patricia is not! She is still a young girl in terms of her adventuring! She could be seriously hurt! Did you not think of going down there?"

"...she's fine." a voice from behind Marisa and Jean said.

The two turned around, and Reimu simply changed her focus from the two magicians to the man standing with his back to them, looking over his shoulder in a vague attempt to look cool.

"Ah! Dawitsu! Ye of little faith!" Reimu declared, "So, you know where Patricia is? Is she kicking butt, like I expected?"

Turning around to face the shrine maiden, Dawitsu put his hands behind his back, and said, "Unfortunately for me, Yukari has been gapping me out of my lessons periodically, and Keine has forced me to leave for the day until I stop my sudden absences, so I've had no choice but to stay updated on events..."

"...and? Is she safe?" Jean asked, clearly not as concerned with Patricia living up to any sort of reputation as he was with the girl simply living.

"Well, she was last seen pumping one of my clones for information..." Dawitsu answered, "...drove one of the things to suicide, and the other punched its camera, probably to preserve dignity. Anyway, Yukari seems to think sitting around and doing nothing, letting Patricia solve the incident her own way, is preferable... however..."

"However?" Reimu asked, "Well, come on, spit it out, you idiot!"

"Well, what if I were to tell you I'm somewhat behind this incident, and can therefore tell you what kind of threat Patricia is up against?" Dawitsu offered, "That way you can decide on whether or not to help Patricia out. She's been doing a fine job so far, so don't just hop to action over a whim... she could well handle it herself, and honestly, I'd be just as proud as you if..."

Reimu clouted the mimicker over the head, and yelled, "So you were lying this whole time! You were involved! Should have known not to trust a lying, cheating sword thief like yourself!"

"Hey, thieving is an honourable trade!" Marisa interjected.

"What kind of threat are we dealing with?" Jean asked, seemingly the only sane member of the group.

"Good thing to know someone wishes to listen to me..." Dawitsu mused, "...right, what we're dealing with is a robot called 'The Gizoid'... black and yellow, all metallic, blue eyes, and it's highly, highly dangerous..."

Marisa suddenly turned pale, and she began to edge away from the group. This instantly caused the other three to look at her, wondering what revelation she had come to.

"What is it, Marisa?" Reimu asked, with a stern expression on her face.

"Marisa, tell us..." Jean added.

Dawitsu, however, seemed to have a vague idea of what she had found out, "It was you, wasn't it? You were the one that..."

"I WASN'T STEALING ANY BOOKS, JUST BORROWING THEM, I TELL YA!" Marisa yelled, and quickly hopped on her broom in an attempt to escape, however, Dawitsu had already zipped in front of her potential flight path.

"So, Marisa... you know, that was pretty smart, stealing books that I'd left off my shelves. That was a good way to by-pass my security network. But do you have any idea what you've unleashed?" Dawitsu asked, pulling Marisa's broom from under her, causing her to fall onto her backside.

Reimu whispered to Jean, "I've never seen that loser get down to business so quickly... I wonder what he's talking about..."

"I'm sure we'll find out... he never stops talking." Jean remarked with equal quietness.

"Okay, let me explain." Dawitsu said, while holding Marisa's broom out of her reach, "I had recently finished perfecting the ultimate battle device, a mimicking robot I named 'The Gizoid'. I had programmed a controlled incident causing program into it to test Patricia, however, I thought better of it after I had given you guys a fake incident too. However, it was programmed so that if it were activated, it'd go and cause the incident anyway... and well, I left it deactivated in my office."

"Heh heh..." Reimu smirked, "And then Marisa broke into your house and activated it, right? Typical Marisa..."

"It just seemed like a random thing that he made!" Marisa shouted, jumping for her broom as Dawitsu lifted it away, "You know, like those UFOs? But it didn't attack me when it woke up, it just flew out the window, so I didn't bother trying to stop it... GIVE ME MY BROOM!"

Reimu folded her arms, "Well, knowing it's just a piece of garbage you've built gives me even more confidence that Patricia can beat it. I mean, come on, she's leagues ahead of the likes of you! She was trained by me, it's practically guaranteed..."

Dawitsu hid Marisa's broom within his cloak so as to stop her distracting him, mysteriously making it fit within his inner pocket, "And you'd be correct... to an extent. The Gizoid recently fought Patricia, and she won..."

"Oh, then the incident's over, right?" Reimu concluded almost instantly, "I mean, whenever the causer of the incident is defeated, it's always time for tea and negotiating with the enemy, solving the incident, isn't it?"

"Not exactly." Dawitsu continued to explain, "I... somewhat stupidly programmed the Gizoid to seek power. More power than it could handle. In other words, it would seek to mimic things beyond my capabilities, and build whatever additional power sources it would require to get itself to said power levels."

Jean sighed, knowing exactly where this was going, "...and it has got one of these 'additional power sources' you're talking about, right?"

"My clones' surveillance suggests that, at the very least, it's successfully built one." Dawitsu answered, "Not only that, but it no longer listens to me. It listens to Utsuho Reiuji..."

"_What_?" Reimu said in disbelief, "How the hell did that happen? Why would you build something that doesn't listen to you?"

"It's part of its in-built desire to acquire powerful abilities." Dawitsu explained, "It will over-ride its current 'master' if another potential master is more powerful than the first. That way, it's more likely to acquire powerful attack techniques. However, that also means its original programming, the programming which forced it to keep the incident controlled..."

Reimu sighed, and her expression became rather threatening, "So, by trying to make an incident where Patricia wasn't in danger, you've gone and made an incident where Patricia is genuinely in danger, and all of Gensokyo, for that matter..."

"...well, yeah, but as I said, she's been handling it terrifically so far, and I think..." Dawitsu began to say in a nervous manner, before realising he'd need to be a little more loud about his denial of guilt.

"Well, I... uh... MARISA ACTIVATED IT!" Dawitsu pointed to his scapegoat, and took her broom out of his hammer-space, before whispering, "...sorry, a moment of weakness..."

Jean seemed to be wearing an equally enraged expression, "Marisa... you put all of Gensokyo in danger... for some books?"

Reimu corrected Jean's logic, and said, "Hey, it's the dumbass mimicker's fault for coming up with such an easily hijacked plan!"

Dawitsu and Marisa looked to each other, and the latter said, "...so, this is the part where we flee for our lives, right?"

Dawitsu nodded, "Yeah, something like that."

_Marisa and Dawitsu sped away as fast as they could in their poor attempts at escaping the fury of the two 'parental figures' that seemed to actually give a damn about Patricia's safety, however, they could not simply fly forever, and eventually, the four engaged in a strange activity, one which hadn't been seen for... a very long time in Gensokyo. _

_They engaged in what was called a 'tag team' spell-card battle, and despite the genuine emotion behind the fight, at the very least, Dawitsu and Marisa had a great time working together in what was a mostly pointless fight. Who won, you may ask? Well, that is up to one's own intuition..._

Author's Notes: Wow, a purely story chapter? Well, I never. It's almost like this was a fanfic for a moment.

So, revelation after revelation. Clone and clone's creator both acting as the wonderful exposition fairy. With Dawitsu having the added benefit of being camp as a row of pink tents, and so therefore would be totally comfortable being a lovely, pretty fairy.


	8. 08: Determination Levels Maximum

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 8- Determination Levels Maximum**

_A Mountain in the Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, eleven twenty-two ante-meridian_

The summit of the mountain was as silent as a sound proof room in outer space equipped with anti-noise emitters, and both Utsuho and 'Okuu Junior' were simply sitting together, unsure of what exactly they were waiting for. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Utsuho decided to gently flick the extremely brittle silence, breaking it into pieces.

"I wonder where Orin is..." Utsuho mumbled to herself.

"Her absence is preferred." 'Okuu Junior' muttered, "She would destroy me. You are aware of this."

"But still, she..." Utsuho sighed, "She was a good friend... she told me that she got the shrine maiden that stopped me last time to come down here... she was doing the right thing..."

"Examining data..." 'Okuu Junior' said, pausing briefly, before coming to some kind of conclusion, "She arranged your defeat according to data on events referred to under folder 'Subterranean Animism'. Biotic: Rin Kaenbyou is potentially a threat."

"Didn't you hear me? She did the right thing..." Utsuho mumbled, "...Okuu Junior, what's the right thing to do? I don't know any more..."

"'Right' is an arbitrary concept." the robot stated, "'Right', to me, is only defined by my master. You decide what is right. I cannot decide for you..."

"Okuu Junior..." Utsuho looked to the robot with concern, "...your creator wasn't very nice to you, was he? He can't have been to make you this... um... this..."

"My creator equipped me with large amounts of power and data on how to acquire larger amounts of power." the robot rattled off the various memories it had, "The creator also equipped me with geographical knowledge, and event data prior to my creation. He did not interact with me. He prepared me."

"...for what?" Utsuho asked.

"To be the ultimate battle life form." the Gizoid stated, "Master registry is part of this mechanism. You are the being with the most power that I have encountered. Observance of your skills will enable me to gain large amounts of power."

"So... you're just using me for power?" Utsuho asked, initially disapproving of the robot, before hanging her head in shame herself, "...I... guess that what I've been doing to you has been the same..."

"Incomplete transmission of data." Okuu Junior tried to explain, "That is my primary functioning. My... 'instinct'. As an individual, I can operate within my primary functioning, or beyond it. Complete deviation from primary protocol is not possible, but further motivation for actions may be present. As mentioned previously, I prefer you to my creator. I 'like' you. You have... in your lexicon, 'saved my life'."

"So... you are helping me because you like me, _and _because you'll get more powerful?" Utsuho asked.

"A mutually beneficial arrangement, correct?" the robot replied, "Power levels are at maximum. Battery is warmed up. Permission to begin conquest?"

Utsuho curled up, and mumbled, "N-not yet, just... just stay here..."

Suddenly, the robot looked away from Utsuho, and stood up, looking into the distance. From the summit, it could just about see... a certain silhouette, floating above the lava. Its eyes glowed, and its jet-pack activated.

"Huh? Okuu Junior, where are you going? I told you not to start the conquest yet!" Utsuho scolded her 'pet'.

"I am not. Interfering biotic detected. Identified as 'Patricia Hakurei'. Terminating." 'Okuu Junior' stated, zipping from its position at the summit and off into the distance before its master could so much as try to tell it to stop.

Utsuho sighed, "...I guess making sure no-one will get in the way is good, even if I do call it off..." getting up herself, Utsuho flew from the mountain's peak and began to follow her robotic friend, shouting, "Wait up, Okuu Junior!"

_Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, during the former events_

The final stage had begun. Lines of Evil Spirits played follow-the-leader in front of Patricia, firing danmaku at her for no particular reason beyond perhaps a natural aggression... perhaps the less-than-civilised nature of the area had turned them into mindless savages? Patricia didn't know the answer, and for the most part couldn't afford to care, and shot the spirits down like every other one she had encountered.

Their main tactic of firing straight at the girl was wearing thin, and the shrine maiden seemed to be rather bored of the repetitious strategy. 'Fortunately' for her, it seemed that a change of pace was right around the corner.

A swarm of what seemed to be the robotic sentinels from her last major fight flew into the area, however, this time around they were not armed with orange laser-firing openings at the bottom, but instead rather strange, dark purple attachments that fired lighter purple, curving purple crystals.

Sighing as she forced herself to switch to her 'yin-yang orb smacking' attack type, Patricia tried her best to dodge the barrage from the seven-strong group of sentinels. Occasionally, a needle would hit her, piercing her skin before shattering, causing her to have numerous small holes and associated blood-stains on her dress.

"It's gonna take ages to wash this..." Patricia complained, hitting her yin-yang orb and destroying a pair of sentinels, "I wonder if I can get away with it on my top... I mean, at least that's already red..."

The sentinels, while silent, seemed a little upset that Patricia wasn't taking the fight seriously, and began to fire their needles more rapidly, but before their amazing tactic of 'fill the air with even more of the same type of attack' became anything resembling useful, their once rather large group had been reduced to one.

Patricia smirked, and decided to toy with the thing. It tentatively fired a crystal at Patricia, and watched as she easily dodged it. Increasing its rate of fire, Patricia effortlessly flew circles around the device until finally, it stopped firing due to the fact that the large amount of needles on its attachment had been depleted.

Patricia stared at the floating robot for a while, and the robot came to the wise conclusion to self-destruct, and so it began to fly towards the miko with the intention to take her down with it. Patricia naturally didn't allow for that to happen, and took her Gohei, smacked it with a downwards strike, and left the damaged machine to careen towards the lava below it.

Continuing her flight, Patricia finally came across a person flying in a slow, dejected fashion above the lava, however, it was someone she entirely wasn't expecting... it was a cat youkai which, for whatever reason, possessed both a human pair of ears and a feline pair of ears, and had a heavily braided pair of pigtails, wearing a black dress with dark green embroidery. This must have been one of Satori's pets... but given it wasn't the raven this... 'Gizoid' thing was apparently serving, Patricia assumed she was on her side.

"Hey! You over there!" the shrine maiden called out to the Kasha.

The cat youkai looked to Patricia, and decided to stop flying, and said in a lethargic voice attempting to be an energetic one, "Hey there... sis... you look a lot like someone who came down here a long time ago... I must be going crazy, it's like deja vu..."

"I'm real." Patricia replied, "Hey, are you one of that Satori person's pets? She wants you back home, she's concerned for your safety, or something. There's another pet I have a fight to pick with, though..."

"Huh?" the cat suddenly perked up, "Wait, I'm not seeing things, am I? You're... you're a human shrine maiden!"

"Well... uh, yeah, I'm wearing the clothes..." Patricia said in a sheepish manner, not quite so sure why she was so excited.

"So I don't even need to cause any trouble in the above-ground to get the help I needed before!" Rin said, her tone rather cheery, "There's still hope! Hey, you need to knock some sense into that hell-raven, Okuu! You know the one, right, you beat her before, didn't ya? Wham, bam, thank you mam, job's a good 'n'!"

Patricia couldn't help but think her presence had somehow caused another person to lose her mind, "I... haven't fought her before. Are you thinking of..."

However, Rin had left Patricia before she could fully explain herself, and seemed to be laughing maniacally to herself as she floated back towards the Palace of the Earth Spirits, as if she had just accepted she'd gone mad with despair.

"That was... weird." Patricia said, successfully submitting a nomination for the understatement of the year award, however, given the changing nature of Gensokyo at the moment, there was every chance more nominations would surface.

Flying a little more, and dealing with a few more trails of evil spirits, and a veritable army of far smaller, easier-to-kill sentries, Patricia was beginning to expect the final battle of her little adventure.

However, three particularly hardy evil spirits decided to postpone the final battle a little longer, each being polite enough to take it in turns in their attempts to take her down with a mostly random spray of pink bullets, making for a positively fabulous display of danmaku-based death.

However, one by one, they were vanquished, and Patricia simply floated along, until finally, she came across a landmark which undoubtedly was significant, if her knowledge of adventuring was at all accurate. A fairly small mountain was standing in the sea of lava, with two humanoid figures resting on the summit. One of them had the tell-tale three horns that indicated that yes, this was a significant landmark- her final boss was right there.

Floating towards the mountain, Patricia smiled, feeling a certain... accomplishment. This was it... it was over, it was all over. Just this one fight, and she'd have solved her first incident. How hard could it be?

Apparently, it wasn't as hard as keeping focus, as the next time she checked the summit in the distance, the humanoid figure with the horns had disappeared from view, causing Patricia to cock her head and say, "Huh?"

At this point, she engaged her other senses, and noticed a certain... whirring sound behind her. Turning to face the noise, she saw the Gizoid floating in front of her, and before she could do anything, it back-handed her in the face, knocking her backwards, dazing her, and making her nose bleed.

"Biotic: Patricia Hakurei: Observational skills: Poor." the Gizoid stated, once again as if it were a simple fact.

Patricia backed away, pinching her nose, saying, "So, here we are... this is it, once I beat you, you have to stop whatever it is you're planning, okay? That's the rules..."

"I am aware of the rules of what you call 'spell-card battles'." the robot replied, "Regardless of what battle type you wish to engage me in, the outcome will remain the same..."

"Oh, but I'm pretty bad at Shogi, I'm sure you'd be able to beat me at that..." Patricia quipped, surprising herself with her own sarcasm.

Oddly enough, the Gizoid seemed to grasp the sarcasm well, and proceeded to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees in the air, revealing a small, glass cube attached to the top of its jet-pack, one that was filled with a thick black paste separated by strips of silvery metal.

"Your remark is most amusing. BEHOLD!" the robot suddenly changed tone in an uncharacteristic manner, "This new power source provides me with enough power to fatally decimate you approximately five hundred thousand, five hundred and seventy nine point five-two-seven-five-five-six times over."

"It also makes you talk a lot..." Patricia remarked, her nosebleed clearly not affecting her pride.

"Language centre has improved slightly." the robot admitted, while turning back around, "Preference to use personal pronouns has increased, and comprehension of complex ideas appears to require less power."

Patricia sighed, "Can we please get on with..."

"Wait!" another voice called.

"_What now_?" Patricia said in a frustrated manner, holding her head up so as to reduce her nosebleed a little.

A tall woman with long hair as raven as her species flew into the area, wearing a cape as grandiose as her aims for world conquest. On her right arm was her characteristic arm cannon, her 'third leg'. This description was enough even for Patricia to deduce the hell-raven's identity.

"Utsuho Reiuji..." Patricia said in a rather pathetic, nasally tone, her nosebleed now bad enough that she had to be tending to it, "...so, you're the one that's messed everything up. According to an informant, this whole thing would be a lot less messy if it wasn't for you!"

"What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked, "Hey, Okuu Junior, don't attack her just yet..."

"Affirmative." the robot stated.

Utsuho proceeded to fly in front of the now stationary robot, in order to explain herself, "Look, if it wasn't for me, Okuu Junior would still be shooting up places at random, isn't that right, Okuu Junior?"

"Correct. Former objective: Obtain maximum destruction within Underground settlements." the robot confirmed.

"If this is gonna be some big speech, can you save it for after the fight?" Patricia asked, "Because at this rate, I'm gonna fall asleep..."

"Just shut up!" Utsuho snapped, "I'm gonna use Okuu Junior to help make the above-ground recognise the underground as people again, and with his help, I'm gonna make the world a better place!"

"Oh, and making the world a better place means levelling it with sun powers?" Patricia asked, "Reimu's told me about you... you're just a powerful idiot that tried to use her massive power to rule over everyone!"

"Grrr..." Utsuho was beginning to break at Patricia's less-than-sensitive deconstruction of her ideals, "SHUT UP! Okuu Junior's told me about you, too... you're Patricia Hakurei. Whoever beat me before, Reimu or whatever, she's better than you are. She only barely beat me anyway, but you look just like a kid! You may have been able to beat Okuu Junior before, but he's all better now, I know he's gonna stop you!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, if you're not gonna fight me with him, can you please step aside and stop talking..." Patricia dismissively said, tipping her head back forward and snorting a bit of blood upwards, "...I kinda want this thing to be over soon, and you're not helping."

"Hmph! Fine!" Utsuho flew a fair way to the side, and said, "You can handle her on your own, right? Okuu Junior, _ATTACK!_"

"Roger." the robot replied as it retracted one of its hands, and soon began to speak up again, "Demonstrating new power level... Atomic Fire: Nuclear Fusion!"

Releasing a torrent of blue bullets, the robot initiated the battle, and Patricia quite easily dodged the attack, wondering what exactly the fuss was about. However, the robot proceeded to sound a klaxon, and proceeded to show _exactly_ what the fuss was about.

It fired from itself eight massive, white-hot spheres of light, slowly moving towards Patricia, who panicked, wondering how on earth she was supposed to move swiftly and still avoid the dense sea of blue bullets that were released before it. Deciding to take it slowly, she skirted along the edge of a miniature sun, feeling it burn one of her detached sleeves...

...and despite all of this effort, it was all simply to dodge the attack, and Patricia hadn't even _begun _to consider how she was going to attack it in a manner that she'd be able to keep up.

Her homing amulets did nothing, she knew that much already... her hakkero was pretty much out of the question given the precarious location, and bombing seemed a little desperate for the first attack... however, this _was_ the final battle, putting her all into it should have been expected.

The Gizoid continued its assault, spraying the area with blue avoidance retardant before frying the air in all five ways, making one wonder exactly how the robotic abomination was staying in one piece.

Patricia was beginning to feel like she could lose this... she cycled through her potential attacks, and then realised that she had an option she had failed to consider in her first battle with the Gizoid. Equipping a set of persuasion needles, she muttered, "I hope this works..."

Throwing the needles at the robot as it filled the area around it with blue bullets once more, it soon felt a 'ping' as the 'persuading' projectiles bounced off of the robot, causing it to pause for a moment.

As the attack field slowly cleared, the robot stared as its opponent in silence. Even Utsuho, who had somehow been watching from the sidelines without getting hurt, asked, "What are you doing, Okuu Junior? You were beating her! She wasn't even hurting you!"

"Utsuho Reiuji's attacks are powerful, but ineffective at hitting target. Likelihood of damage minimal." the Gizoid stated, "Low-power attacks with longer durations may be more effective in subduing her, given her great endurance."

"Will you shut up?" Patricia declared, smacking a yin-yang orb at the robot, catching it off-guard.

"Very well." the Gizoid stated, and suddenly converted its hands into large, pentagonal prisms that were exactly perpendicular to its arms. Descending towards the lava, it began to iterate its internal commands out loud.

"Copycat Sign: Doctor Letz Shake!" the robot declared, dipping its massive 'hands' into the lava. It soon began to say its attack process out loud, "Diverting power to shield. Start-up time... ten seconds. Attack process... initiated."

Patricia was surprised... the thing wasn't firing anything. It was simply rumbling away, making some kind of countdown... however, countdowns were very rarely a good thing, and so, Patricia made it a point to go down there and try to stop it. Upon her approaching, its eyes changed colour, and fired a pair of bright yellow lasers from from them, not that they weren't easily avoided.

Despite this narrative most likely being read in a time greater than five point five seconds, the robot had reached the number 'four' in its countdown and had moved on to its final preparations.

"Finalising. Activating engines... three... two... ONE..." the robot finally finished its countdown, and lifted its two great, pentagonal poles of death, before plunging them into the lava again rapidly, yelling out, "BATTLE CRY!"

The impact did exactly what one would expect- it caused a great tidal wave of lava to originate from the massively destructive robot, and forced Patricia back upwards, while avoiding the highly dangerous flecks of lava that made it to her level.

Accepting that a merciless beating with her Gohei was definitely out of the question, given the sheer amount of close-range impact 'Okuu Junior' must have created, and tried her best to hit the robot from a distance with her yin-yang orbs, which given her height, wasn't so difficult.

The Gizoid continued the countdown for its next attack, seemingly unfazed by the beatings it was receiving from the yin-yang orb, and unleashed another tidal wave of lava, declaring as before, "BATTLE CRY!"

While the dodging was extremely light, it was obvious the thing was toying with her, something Utsuho knew just as well as Patricia. And, naturally, she felt it was right that she, calling from her mysteriously safe location, could give her fighter-on-demand some orders.

"Stop that, it's not working, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho declared, "Also, with waves like that, you might hit the Palace! Be careful!"

"Affirmative." the robot replied, and took its massive 'hands' out of the lava, and floated up to Patricia's level, "Power conservation levels... satisfactory. Temporary use of greater amounts of power sustainably possible. Explosion Sign: Peta Flare!"

Patricia rolled her eyes, and wondered why she didn't just fire at Utsuho while she had all the time in the world to. However, her liberties to be sarcastic died along with most micro-organisms unfortunate enough to be occupying the air at that particular moment, as it become filled with a veritable wall's worth of huge, fast-moving, and thankfully shrinking orbs of hydrogen, helium, tritium, and countless other heavier elements.

To compound her troubles, with each tiny star's entry into the world, a set of small, glowing blue bullets appeared as a by-product, adding to another niggling problem. Patricia realised that now that Utsuho was getting her reins on the robot, she'd probably make sure it wouldn't have another bizarre moment of mercy, or, as it claimed, 'power conservation', and so she had to come up with a strategy, quickly.

However, Patricia was noticing that in order to dodge the attack, she mainly had to move quickly, and this kind of movement was... perfect for her 'yin-yang orb throwing' strategy, as long as she was allowed to move in the overall right direction... and given the random nature of the attack, the chances of that seemed pretty much as good as any other direction, so she decided to give it a shot.

Weaving through the sea of suns and giving simply ghastly burns to her dress, Patricia began her deadly game of tennis, which naturally resulted in the Gizoid moving around a lot more quickly, and causing her to miss almost every shot she took. However, once she _did _hit, she noticed the robot was a lot more affected by the impact than when it was attacking with the lava... that was it! It was weaker at its defence when it was being more offensive! Keeping up her attack and being grateful for any hit she got, finally, the attack ended, and a somewhat irritated-looking Gizoid floated before Patricia, however, something else was different about it...

...its habit of sparking, and twitching its head, had returned. The robot backed away, and declared, "Conservation of power in progress... selecting appropriate attack... selected. Upgraded Robotics: E-one-zero-one beta mark two!"

The robot converted its 'arm cannon' styled nubs into hands, complete with arm-blades, and began a rather simple routine- and it started with equipping some kind of iridescent energy shield, firing a circular barrage consisting of twelve missiles, and charging at Patricia arm-blade first.

Performing an aerial side-step, Patricia attempted to throw a yin-yang orb at the Gizoid, but the orb simply bounced off the shiny sphere that surrounded it. However, Patricia noted that somehow, it still thought it would be able to harm her with its blades through that shield... which meant one thing. It was susceptible to physical attacks.

Next time it fired its missile set and charged towards her, Patricia flew upwards, and grabbed onto the robot's main crest, before swinging around and kicking it in the back, causing the glass battery on its back to gain a crack on its surface. Surprised by this, the robot gained a sudden ruthless streak, and turned around quickly, ready to punch Patricia in the chest, however, Patricia beat it to the punch, albeit she used her Gohei to do the punching for her.

She repeatedly hit the thing in the face, seeming to damage the machine greatly, however, after a short while of unbridled beating, it disappeared, and reappeared instantly, way in the distance. It then began to fire several small, light yellow energy spheres, which would occasionally stop in mid-air and expand, like an explosion if rendered by a virtual engine with limited animation capability.

Patricia found it easy enough to dodge the attack and continue her flight towards it, and, anticipating the shrine maiden, it stopped firing smaller energy spheres, and charged up a larger one, however, before it could finish, Patricia had kicked it in the area most people would use to contain their gut, causing it to tip back and misfire a massive energy orb with an even more massive 'explosion'.

Forming its hand into a false Gohei, the robot began to imitate Patricia, and hit her in the legs, flipping her over in the air, before kicking her away in the same manner she had just done beforehand.

Patricia was hurting all over, but by this point, she knew she had come way too far to simply give up. A second wind keeping her going, she backed away from the robot, who was busy calculating its next attack strategy.

"Luck is an irrational concept, but your survival is defying probability. Charge period... adequate." the robot stated, its tone having a certain feeling resembling that of suppressed anger, "POWER OUTPUT: ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT OF SUSTAINABLE LEVEL! Initiating attack! Hell and Heaven Meltdown!"

"That's my boy, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho called out, if only to remind the reader of her mere existence.

Holding its arms out as it performed some kind of charging, it converted its right arm into an imitation 'third leg', and proceeded to release an utterly monstrous-sized mock sun upwards, and let it slowly drift to the cavern-like ceiling of the Hell of the Blazing Fires.

Patricia averted her eyes at the sheer brightness, and stammered, "That... surely it can't manage any more..."

The robot proceeded to prove her wrong, and as the battery on its back began to crack a little more, it fired a second colossal sun towards the lava below it, and then simply drifted around, sparking and trying its best to stay in one piece.

Patricia couldn't see anything... this was near hopeless- it was clear that 'evil sealing circle' wasn't going to work, given any additional heat stress was clearly negligible at the moment, and she couldn't trust her fantasy orbs to home in on the robot. Not to mention that she was having trouble opening her eyes, let alone being able to aim her yin-yang orbs...

Then, something came to her... the one thing she hadn't tried against the Gizoid... the one thing that was the ultimate risk... well, this was a desperate time indeed, and an energy-based attack seemed like the only one that would actually stick around in this mess.

The robot watched as the shrine maiden fumbled around in the bright light, somehow not getting hit by the blue bullets which came slowly from the two blinding orbs of quark-gluon plasma. This in itself was causing the robot to spark erratically, its battery cracking a little more.

"This is illogical. Probability of termination of biotics such as humans is one hundred percent, given the circumstantial parameters..." the Gizoid complained in its own monotonous, semi-logical manner, "...this... does not... compute... this... does not... compute..."

"You know what else doesn't compute?" Patricia asked, grinning wryly as she winced at the light, pointing a hexagonal prism towards the source of the sound, "The fact you gave away your location when I was practically blind. C'mon hakkero, don't fail me now! Love Sign: Master Spark!"

The laser fired almost immediately, and propelled Patricia backwards, erasing the bullets in her path and sending her dangerously close to the lava. Meanwhile, on the other end of the laser, 'Okuu Junior' took every last piece of the love-coloured monstrosity, its body beginning to feel the strain of its own immense power and the laser's...

Patricia was still flying backwards, stammering, "How... how do I stop this..."

Her shoe began to set on fire as she neared the lava's surface, and she curled up so her legs were as high as possible. Realising her slow descent towards the lava wasn't stopping any time soon, Patricia knew what she had to do... she felt bad, knowing it was a gift from her Aunty Marisa and Uncle Jean, but figured that they'd rather she was alive than the mini-hakkero, and so, she let go of the device, flying upwards as it propelled itself into the lava.

This caused both the laser and the Gizoid's attack to dissipate, and left an exhausted young shrine maiden with burns all over her clothes, as well as second-degree burns to her legs, floating in front of an equally exhausted, twitching, sparking, and overall barely flying 'Okuu Junior'.

Naturally, this was the point where Utsuho decided to be responsible and step in, shouting, "That's it! You can't kill Okuu Junior! You have to go through me! Say goodbye, shrine maiden! This'll show that stupid Reimu not to mess with me!"

The robot next to her stammered weakly, "Impossible... battle impossible... battle..." before inexplicably gaining one last burst of energy, and said to its master, "Get back..."

Patricia slowly floated away from the lava, barely prepared for another attack, however, another attack was exactly what she got.

"POWER OUTPUT: ONE THOUSAND PERCENT OF SUSTAINABLE LEVEL! COMPILING DATA! DECOMPRESSING DATA! ASSIMILATING DATA! RECOMPRESSING DATA! ATTACK DATA COMPLETE!" the Gizoid was sparking more than ever, and converted both of its arms to cannons, before declaring its final attack, "COMBINATION SIGN: FUSION SPARK!"

After a pause, Patricia knew it was best to stay out of the way of its arms- and for good reason, because it proceeded to fire a massive, rainbow-coloured laser, just like the master spark in every way, but didn't leave its attack at that- it also released from itself Utsuho's trademark false suns, which fired off in random directions, shrinking as they did so. To add to the barrage, many missiles, and smaller blue bullets, seemed to almost fall out of the robot, as if it was emptying itself of every ounce of power it had. Despite its clearly high amount of effort, the attack wasn't anywhere near as systematic as what would defeat Patricia, who simply avoided it, not particularly desiring to continue attacking the robot.

Utsuho, who was directly behind 'Okuu Junior' in what seemed to be the only area it was making a concentrated effort _not _to completely obliterate, looked to the battery on its back... it was fully ruptured, and black paste was leaking from it. The cracks continued to form, and Utsuho knew this was bad news... however, all she could manage to do was quietly whisper her pet's name...

"Okuu Junior..."

At this, the battery on its back shattered, instantly stopping the attack and causing the robot to plummet from the air. Naturally, Utsuho reacted to this first.

"Okuu Junior!" Utsuho yelled as she began to descend as well, "Hold on! I'm coming!"

The robot fell, its arms reaching for Utsuho as it rapidly neared the lava. Utsuho was trying her best to fall as fast as the entirely metallic life-form, however, ultimately, the robot reached the lava before she could reach it.

Slowly sinking, 'Okuu Junior' feebly extended its arms, its legs disappearing into the lava first. By the time the lava had reached its waist, Utsuho got to the robot, and grabbed its hand, pulling on it, trying her hardest not to damage it in the process.

"Hold on, Okuu Junior! I can save you, you'll be okay! I'm so sorry, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho called out, with tearful eyes.

Holding Utsuho's hand with its own, the Gizoid knew it had to push itself in order to assist Utsuho. With its last iota of strength, it activated its jet-pack, and with that last push, Okuu pulled her 'Junior' out of the lava pool, or at least, the upper half of it.

The energy it had used to activate its jet-pack had forced it into hibernation mode, and so, Utsuho simply held the battered, limp piece of metal in her arms, looking upon it in pity, her eyes tearing up.

Patricia, who had been simply watching the whole event, not feeling like stopping it was particularly necessary, decided it was her turn to speak up.

Floating so she was in front of Utsuho, and close enough to speak to her in a civil manner, folded her arms, and said, "So, you gonna stop this world domination crap?"

Utsuho looked at the unconscious Gizoid, then to Patricia, then back to the Gizoid, and finally, back to Patricia. Her eyes became even more filled with tears, and she began to hiccough, occasionally trying to say something before one of them stopped her.

Finally, she burst into tears, and blubbered at Patricia, "I SURRENDER! I DON'T WANT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY FRIENDS!"

Patricia looked at the great, powerful, hell-raven, the one with the power of the stars... reduced to a sobbing wreck. The only thing that could have brought her to this was some kind of private emotional trauma, and Patricia was finding it difficult to determine whether or not it was really fair to ask her what was troubling her. Figuring that if she didn't want to share it, she could just drop it, Patricia decided to ask her anyway.

"What... what are you talking about?" Patricia asked.

"Orin... Orin's probably gonna tell Satori-sama, and then... and then... they'll both hate me... and... and..." Utsuho's inelegant crying became even _more _inelegant crying, and she continued to erratically talk, "...and then... then they'll tell everyone, and then... and then... all the underground will know, and everyone will hate me and... and... now, the only one that wouldn't leave me... he's... he's... he's..."

"...it's a he?" Patricia asked, and decided to try and comfort the highly saddened hell-raven, fearing that a grief-stricken hell-raven going on a rampage may well end up becoming an incident in itself, "I heard you call it a name. What's his name?"

"His name... his name... was... was... 'Okuu Junior'..." Utsuho sniffed, and her crying seemed to stop temporarily, before returning three times as loudly, "...HE WAS SO NICE TO ME AND NOW HE'S DEAD! I SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE HIM FIGHT FOR ME! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"

"Look, I fought back..." Patricia couldn't quite believe what she was saying, given it was her only means of survival beyond running away and letting Gensokyo be burned to ashes, "...I hurt him too..."

Utsuho shook her head, "No... no... I should have just made him my friend. I shouldn't have made him fight. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have..." Utsuho's voice suddenly adopted an aggressive tone, and she yelled, "LEAVE US ALONE! I want to bury him... I... LEAVE US!"

Patricia floated backwards, and tried to calm her down, before remembering a piece of information that would most definitely calm the bereaved, super-powerful youkai.

"...um... I know the creator of... Okuu Junior, is it?" Patricia asked, before Utsuho sporadically interrupted.

"Yeah... he's... he's Okuu Junior..." Utsuho said in a way which indicated she was trying her best to comfort herself.

"...anyway, I know the creator of Okuu Junior, in fact, he lives really close by to where I live!" Patricia said in a happy tone of voice, trying her hardest to introduce just a little positivity to the atmosphere, "If you like, I could try and get him to fix Okuu Junior for you!"

Utsuho's eyes lit up without warning, "You... you'd do that? You'd do that for me?"

Looking at the legless metal torso in Utsuho's arms, Patricia was somewhat doubtful of whether or not Dawitsu would actually be able to repair the remains of the Gizoid, but smiled, and said, "Of course. But on one condition..."

"What's that? Anything!" Utsuho asked in a tone that indicated she literally meant _anything_.

"No more of this 'conquering the above-ground' shtick." Patricia calmly commanded, "Simply... stay in the Ancient City and eat Yakitori..." Patricia suddenly remembered that she herself was a bird, and quickly substituted her wording for something else, "...uh, I mean... stay in the Ancient City and drink sake with the Oni or something. Mess around with that spazz of an evil spirit in your mistress' home, you know, just have fun! Don't go and try this whole incident thing again, okay?"

Utsuho hung her head, and said, "Well, I don't think I want to start any more incidents after everything that's happened... I just want to go home..."

"Well, before you do, you're carrying Okuu Junior for me, at least until we get to the exit of the underground, okay?" Patricia 'negotiated', which in this case, meant 'adding conditions to the deal', "And then, when we get there... I dunno, I guess I'll try my best to carry him the rest of the way."

"As long as you make his creator fix him..." Utsuho mused, "...that's all that matters..."

_The two began their journey back to the above-ground, and, as I'm sure the reader knows from every adventure story he or she's ever read, the way back was infinitely easier to traverse than the way forward. However, there was something of an excuse for this particular adventure. Everyone was either too afraid of the now notorious 'Patricia Hakurei', or had no business attacking her. Yuugi Hoshiguma in particular watched the two fly past with a certain pride, knowing the incident was well and truly over..._

_...while Rin and Satori saw the two pass them, they didn't say much about it. Both seemed... highly disappointed in Utsuho. Forgiveness, as I'm sure you, the reader, will learn, is a very tough road indeed, and it is neither instantaneous nor painless. It requires endurance, and Utsuho would have to learn the hard way that sometimes, one's misgivings cannot simply be ignored._

Author's Notes: It's... it's finally done. This chapter was long, and all it was was the pre-battle warm-up, the battle itself, and the post-battle events...

How I managed to drag it out as long as I did I'll have no idea, but I think that it's safe to say this definitely had a 'final boss' feel to it. Uggh, and we haven't even got to the extra boss. Oh, I wonder who that could be?

The questions, the questions? Heh, not really, you could guess it real easy.


	9. 09: A Triumphant Return

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 9- A Triumphant Return**

_Yukari's House, Mayohiga, just preceding the former chapter's battle_

Lying in her bed with her Oni Shikigami standing next to her, Yukari Yakumo was flicking through the few remaining 'channels' in her set of camera-wearing spies' feedback. The first 'set' of clones seemed to be on the verge of degeneration, and quite a few of the 'channels' had left any areas of interest, and were simply views of what life from an eye in a tiny drunkard's stomach looks like.

Switching her channel to 'twelve', Yukari decided to access the latest set of Chibi Clones' cameras, and finally, came across one that had decided to go into the 'Hell of the Blazing Fires'.

She remained calm as the camera found and focused on Patricia Hakurei, and turned to her Oni Shikigami, saying, "Say, can you make yourself useful and give me some of the vodka we bought?"

The Oni silently agreed, and pulled out a bottle from one pocket, and a tumbler from the other. Keeping the cap on the bottle, she mimed out a motion of her pouring several bottles into the tumbler, waiting for Yukari's response.

"No, I don't want a mix." Yukari replied, "Give it to me neat..."

The Oni nodded, and unscrewed the vodka bottle's cap, pouring the no doubt intoxicating contents into the tumbler, before handing the spirit to Yukari. Sipping it as she continued to watch, her content, neutral expression became a somewhat knowing smirk.

The television screens showed a certain robot in front of Patricia, and shortly after, it was joined by Utsuho Reiuji. This was it... the first battle was mere practice, this one was the definitive final battle... this was starting to get good...

It was at this point she heard a knock on her door. Grumbling a little to herself, Yukari rolled her eyes and said, "I guess I'm getting that..."

Forming a gap on her bed, Yukari fell out of reality, and re-entered it in an area closer to her door. Opening it, she folded her arms, seeing that it was merely the perpetual annoyance that others called 'Dawitsu'.

"So, have you decided to abandon your job despite all your complaining earlier?" Yukari remarked, "Well, it's okay, I can handle watching the events from here..."

Dawitsu laughed to himself a little anxiously, still clearly in fear of the Border Youkai, "Well, I'd love to, but... my... uh... compatriots here, they won't take no for an answer..."

As if they had been hiding and waiting for a cue, three particular humans came into view behind Dawitsu, all wearing faces that implied that they wanted in on this little masquerade...

Reimu decided to speak up, and said, "I'm sure you know that this idiot told me about your camera thing, so you can't talk your way out of this! Just let us see how Patricia's doing..."

"Yeah, we beat Dawitsu fair and square, and now you have to let us in and check things out!" Marisa added.

"...you were on the mimicker's side, that's nothing to be proud of..." Jean mumbled from the sidelines.

Yukari knew there was no kicking them out, and decided there was no reason for her to refuse, and so she simply moved a little to the side, "Come on in. I think you came just in time, it's the big finale to this little incident..."

Reimu's eyes lit up, "Wait, you're watching Patricia's first final boss, and you didn't invite me sooner? Come on, what's the hold-up, let's go there immediately!"

Yukari held a fan so as to cover her face, "If you wish..."

Opening up five gaps, she instantly transported the group into her bedroom, the four-poster bed making the whole affair seem like a sleepover. They were even watching an entertaining movie together...

The five didn't have much liberty to get comfortable, however, and the battle had already started in the time they had spent demanding to be let in. While Jean and Reimu were fretting over Patricia's safety while occasionally cheering for her when she cleared an attack, Marisa spent most of the time half-accurately bragging that she would do so much better given the circumstances. Dawitsu, on the other hand, seemed to be becoming more and more worried over time, and at times, seemed to be rooting for the wrong team.

At one point, Patricia and her robotic enemy got into a physical fight, and Dawitsu out and out yelled, "That's my Gizoid! Look at it imitating Patricia perfectly, just as I programmed it!" before stopping on the grounds that everyone else was giving him a disapproving glare.

The battle became even more intense, with the four visitors glued to the screen while Yukari folded her arms, unable to see the screen through the highly invested audience. However, the camera angle suddenly turned away from the battle, speeding away as quickly as possible, before turning back around and viewing the fight from a very great distance.

"Huh? What's going on, why is your clone going so far away, I can't see Patricia or that stupid robot of yours..." Reimu complained.

"I think that's because it's..." Dawitsu began to say, before the entire display became overwhelmed with light, and when the camera's view adjusted itself, two massive suns occupied most of the battlefield, "...yeah, it's not safe to be close-up..."

"Hey, Reimu, it's just like that attack Utsuho did back in the day!" Marisa said, her tone a little admiring, "That robot of yours is pretty cool, if it's able to copy stuff like that. I admit, I wouldn't mind one myself!"

Dawitsu grinned with self-assurance, "Well, it is sorta my Magnum Opus of robotics, I worked every evening on..."

Dawitsu's speech stopped within approximately a hundred milliseconds of hearing the sound of a master spark being fired from the television, and he stared in horror as he saw his 'Magnum Opus' take a massive, highly destructive laser head-on.

He quivered, and whispered, "...my... my Gizoid..."

Reimu, on the other hand, was staring at the display in horror for an entirely different reason- that her successor had just used a 'master spark' at all.

"...huh? When did she..." Reimu began to say, and then turned to face Jean and Marisa, "You morons! You were teaching her your stupid magic behind my back? What kind of shrine maiden do you know that practices magic?"

Marisa shrugged her shoulders, "Hey, I'd say a shrine maiden which can fire a master spark is pretty..." Marisa suddenly changed tone, and mumbled, "...hold on, she's still firing that thing, it's going on for way too long..."

Reimu's face became frozen in fear, and Jean's skin became an unnaturally pale tone, and he swallowed, before saying, "...she's... she's going towards the lava! Yukari, save her!"

Yukari turned away from the group, "If you'd let me watch the damn television screen, perhaps I'd know the context well enough to want to. Regardless, I can't go into the underground..."

The distant view made it difficult to determine what exactly was going on, and so, as the spark suddenly stopped and something seemed to enter the magma pool that was below the battling duo, the four all assumed the worst.

"PATRICIA!" Reimu yelled, tears in her eyes as she looked away from the television, "NO! IT'S MY FAULT! She wasn't ready, she wasn't..."

Marisa and Jean turned to comfort the shrine maiden, and Marisa even went as far as to say, "It was my fault for giving her that stupid hakkero..."

"I should never have taught her 'master spark'..." Jean mumbled.

Even Dawitsu tried somewhat to comfort Reimu, and mused, "...I... I never wanted this to happen to her..."

Yukari, who had finally got a decent view of the screen, rolled her eyes, and said, "You idiots have no idea what a 'fake-out' is, do you? Look at the screen, she's absolutely fine..."

The four turned their faces back, and noticed that yes, there was, in fact, three figures floating above the lava, and Patricia was one of them. Both Patricia and the Gizoid seemed to be resting, looking at each other rather than fighting.

"What do you think they're doing? Is the battle over?" Reimu asked.

Dawitsu gulped, "If I programmed the Gizoid well, then... it should be determined to carry out its master's orders no matter what... it won't give up..."

"What do you..." Reimu began to ask, before finding out first hand what Dawitsu was talking about.

The robot unleashed one last barrage, Marisa both mesmerised and worried at seeing her 'master spark' being used in conjunction with the raw power of Utsuho's attacks. The sun-like spheres fired way off into the distance, and it was right about this point that the camera got taken out by one of these attacks.

Yukari rolled her eyes, "Well, that was an anti-climax..."

"But... we don't know if Patricia's safe or not..." Jean pointed out.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Reimu muttered, "Hey, mimicker, what do you think happened to the enemy? You know, your little toy."

"It... it probably ran itself down to the point where..." Dawitsu suddenly came to a realisation, and fell to the floor, "NO! MY GIZOID! NO! I... I... my... my..."

Marisa smirked, seemingly not caring about the now-distraught mimicker, "I reckon that means it's destroyed itself. That means Patricia's probably won after all. I'm sure she would have survived that attack, I mean, after she tricked us all into thinking she was dead, why would she go on later to actually die? She's fine..."

"Speaking of her making us think she was dead..." Reimu began, "...mind explaining why you decided to teach _my _successor your amateur magic?"

Marisa grinned, "Amateur Magic? Oh yeah, right! I was giving her a power upgrade! She wouldn't have beat that thing without..."

Reimu managed to stop Marisa in her tracks with a particularly unsettling death glare, and the witch made the sensible decision of running out of the room, with Reimu following soon after.

Jean sighed to himself, and turned to Dawitsu, who was still a little rattled by the whole event, "...do you think Patricia is alright?"

Yukari, who had been sitting back and letting the arguments commence around her, talked instead of the mimicker, "She's perfectly safe. In fact, I can guarantee it..."

"Huh?" Jean asked, "How?"

"I'm very aware of the Border between life and death... of people who I am... invested in the welfare of." Yukari seemed a little reluctant to say the word 'care', possibly on the grounds that it would seem wrong coming out of her mouth, "...Patricia Hakurei, as you call her, is fine."

Dawitsu suddenly snapped out of his post-traumatic stress state, and said, "Hold the phone... Yukari, if you could monitor Patricia's life force, why did you make me send all of those clones down into the underground?"

Yukari kneeled down to Dawitsu's level, and pulled on his cheek a little, "Because, that way, I could see all the fun things going on a little better. It's been entertaining, watching this event unfold..."

Dawitsu blushed, "Yukari, you make me feel uncomfortable when you touch my face..."

"I know, and that's why I do it." Yukari bluntly stated, "Anyway, Mister Levoisier, why don't you ask this moron over her to lead you to the underground entrance. There, you and him can... I don't know, wait to meet Patricia and sing camp-fire songs together, or something. Whatever it is humans and human wannabes do with their time..."

Jean stood up, as did Dawitsu, and the former said, "Thanks for letting me know that Patricia's okay... I was very worried for her, I have to admit..."

"That's very touching, but I haven't even finished my vodka yet..." Yukari mused, "...so if you don't mind, I'd prefer it if you leave as quickly as possible."

Dawitsu adopted a method of locomotion that was a bizarre cross between walking, jogging, and running, and exited the room in a hurry, while Jean simply walked out of the room at a slightly less leisurely pace than usual.

Exiting the house and picking up Jean's broom on the way, the two guys stood together on Yukari's porch for a moment, just the two men alone.

Dawitsu smiled a little awkwardly at Jean, and mused, "...my poor Gizoid... I knew I shouldn't have programmed it to make an incident..."

Jean didn't quite know what to say, beyond, "...Yukari didn't mention whether or not it was destroyed..."

"But robots aren't living." Dawitsu unsurely replied, "I bet Yukari can see the border between active and inactive, but there's no way I'd ask her to tell me whether it's safe. She'd just torture me by saying she knows, but won't tell me..."

"...fair enough." Jean replied, "So, where will Patricia be exiting the underground from?"

Dawitsu winked, his spirits seemingly a little raised, "I love it when I can help a human out! Well, I'll lead you right there! Hope you can keep up with me, we'll have a race!"

"...I'd prefer a leisurely ride on my broom." Jean said, boarding his broom, "After all, if we rush, we might be waiting a while..."

"Heh heh, fair enough." Dawitsu replied, and began to levitate, "In that case... let's have a guy chat. It's been a while since either of us have had one, I'm sure..."

Jean clicked his heels, and the broom set off to a slow, mid-air crawl, "...ah, it has been. All the women in the area makes you feel a little maddened at times, doesn't it?"

The two floated along the streets of Mayohiga, heading in the general direction of the Youkai Mountain, passing a certain two lizard youkai on the way, one with long, overgrown, maroon hair, and one with short, curly, green hair.

The maroon-haired one muttered, "Don't you think this cameo is a little pointless? I mean, what will the new readers of the books think?"

"Hebiko, what are you talking about?" the green-haired one replied, "All I noticed was those two hotties flying past together. I wonder what they're... they could be secretly gay together, couldn't they?"

Hebiko face-palmed, "I get a contrived cameo, and it's with this pervert... at least I got one more line than her..."

_The Forest of Magic, heading towards the Foot of the Youkai Mountain, shortly afterwards_

Jean and Dawitsu, surprisingly enough, were laughing and joking with each other as they flew together, despite the fact that neither really knew one another, and the most interaction between them was the occasional danmaku fight and an incident involving a gay cowboy and a sexy builder.

Despite having very little in common, it seemed the possession of a Y Chromosome was all the common traits they needed, and the two seemed to find the ability to express their more testosterone-lined selves a little therapeutic.

"Anyway, as I was saying, she was all like, 'we should try for a baby again tonight'..." Dawitsu said, continuing a story of his, "And you know what I said?"

Jean thought to himself, "What type of Youkai is your wife again?"

"A kitsune." Dawitsu replied instantly.

"You said... 'You foxy woman', am I right?" Jean guessed.

Dawitsu tittered to himself a little, "Your accent's gone a little, but you can tell English isn't your first language. I said..." Dawitsu proceeded to clear his throat, and then iterated in a high-pitched, ridiculous tone, "OOH, FOXY LADY!"

Jean laughed a little at the mimicker's little gag, and then said, "I'm not sure if I have any amusing stories like that..."

Dawitsu flicked his hair, and suddenly brought his face close to Jean's ears, "Oh really... well, tell me, suave French lover-boy... any girls? I've seen the way the girls at the Myouren Temple look at you when I donate there..."

"They look at me strangely?" Jean asked, "But I am getting old, my hair is greying..."

"So... anyone?" Dawitsu nudged Jean a little, "Come on... you can tell me... is it Shou?" Dawitsu proceeded to put on a 'pirate voice', "Cap'n Murasa?"

Jean became red in the face, "...well, it is not like that, the Buddhists, they're like family..."

"...not even Nue?" Dawitsu asked, seemingly disappointed, "But she's got thigh-highs and everything, man! Come on, if they're not into you, surely you're a little into _one_ of them! You may be an old man, but you're a man nonetheless!"

"I'm forty three!" Jean replied in a defensive tone, "Besides, if Marisa saw me... you know, flirting with anyone from the temple, then she..."

"Oh..." Dawitsu said with a smirk.

"What?" Jean asked, despite knowing exactly what the youkai was implying.

"I see how it is... well, she's matured pretty well, I can see her being fair game..." Dawitsu mused to himself, "...it's okay, Jean, your secret's safe with me. But I may just leave a little note in the next book Marisa steals from my place... gahahaha!"

Dawitsu snickered to himself as Jean's expression remained unimpressed, before the magician shouted, "I don't care if you tell her, because I know that we both know!"

The mimicker paused for a second, before cocking his head, "Whoa, so you guys are actually an item? Congratulations, I guess. Um... I presume Reimu doesn't know, right?"

"Well, yeah..." Jean mused, "...don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Of course, my little secret." Dawitsu said, tapping his nose, "Reimu would just think I was trying to piss her off if I _did _tell her..."

"That's true..." Jean replied.

The two continued their 'manly discussion', and eventually reached the cave in the side of the Youkai Mountain.

Sitting down outside the cave, Dawitsu crossed his legs and said, "Well, that was easy. Don't go in, 'kay? I want Patricia to exit on her own, all proud-like..."

Jean smiled, sitting down opposite to him, "So, you're fond of her too?"

"Sure am..." Dawitsu replied, "...she's actually nice to me, unlike her predecessor. I forget, what time do humans hit the menopause, because Reimu acts like a hormonal bitch to me..."

"It's not the menopause..." Jean replied, his facial expression deadpan, "...she just doesn't like you."

"Wow, way to break it gently." Dawitsu remarked, before he got up again, "Hey, why don't we set up a camp-fire here?"

"It's the middle of the day..." Jean pointed out, "...I don't understand you youkai..."

However, Dawitsu ignored Jean's legitimate point, and gathered sticks together, building a little pile, before he pointed his finger at the pile, "Copycat Sign: PK Fire Alpha!"

A small spark of fire shot from Dawitsu's hand, and set the pile gently alight. Jean rolled his eyes, "Well, at least we'll be able to give Patricia a warm welcome..."

"Hey, that was quite a clever pun!" Dawitsu said, before pulling out a guitar with a design so simplistic that from a certain angle, it seemed to only possess three strings.

Jean sighed to himself, "What now?"

"Let's sing a song..." Dawitsu declared out of the blue, "I call this one... the Camp-fire Song Song..."

"Now I remember why people think you're annoying..." Jean mused to himself, and knew he was about to endure a hellish wait for his adoptive niece.

After about half an hour and seven references to media which had most likely long since fallen out of fashion in the outside world, finally, someone exited the cave. Naturally, just as expected, it was Patricia, however, she did not exit straight out of the cave... before she fully exited the cave, she turned back, and seemed to be talking to someone.

Suddenly, her back shifted as if she had adjusted her weight to accommodate for carrying something, and she then turned back around, holding a battered, partially melted robot in her arms.

Jean's eyes widened, and he whispered, "Patricia..."

However, Dawitsu ruined the beautiful moment by yelling, "MY GIZOID!"

Patricia walked from the cavern's exit, totally unprepared for the mimicker that zipped up to her, and could only muster up a, "...hi..." as the mimicker examined the metallic creature in her hands the same way a squirrel would to an acorn.

"It's... it's intact!" Dawitsu said, his enthusiasm levels noticeably high, "Okay, it's missing a few legs, but it's in one piece! Wow, that's awesome! Oh, I'm so glad it's okay!"

Patricia rolled her eyes, as the mimicker continued to babble, "I'm right here too, whenever you're ready..."

Jean decided to occupy that role, and walked up to Patricia, a caring smile on his face, "It's good to see you again, Patricia... you don't know how worried Reimu and I were. We were watching you fighting, you know..."

"...where is Reimu, speaking of her..." Patricia asked.

"She is... probably somewhere in Mayohiga, fighting Marisa..." Jean mused, "...she knows that we taught you some magic, and she decided to go after Marisa for it, it would seem..."

"Oh..." Patricia mused, a slightly disappointed expression on her face, "...I sorta was hoping she'd be here for me..."

Jean ruffled her hair, "...it's okay, I'm sure that she's very proud of you... come on, I'm sure you want to go home after all this..."

The shrine maiden nodded, "Okay... but first..." Patricia turned to Dawitsu, and kicked him in the shin to get his attention, "...hey, you, I agreed with Utsuho that I'd get you to fix this thing, so can you take this off my hands?"

Dawitsu didn't need telling twice, and took the robot without question, "Oh, of course, of course! I'll fix it up until he's like brand new! I won't let you down!"

With that, Dawitsu kicked himself off the ground, and sped back towards his floating mansion, visible as a small speck in the sky, seemingly having forgotten he was supposed to be an escort to Jean in favour of fixing his beloved super-weapon.

Jean shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Should I assume you know the way back?"

"Dawitsu escorted you here too, I imagine..." Patricia mused, "...oh well, I guess that we'll be going on many a detour to get home..."

The two flew back through the Forest of Magic, trying their best to locate landmarks that were familiar, and despite a few false turns, they managed to make it to the Hakurei Shrine in one piece, Patricia's outfit and body no more damaged than it already was.

Patricia looked to Jean, and said, "I guess I should go inside now... I wanna sleep, even though it's still day-time..."

"I don't blame you..." Jean mused, "I don't even know if Reimu's come back... do you want me to go in with you?"

"No thanks, Uncle Jean. I just wanna sleep..." Patricia mumbled, her tone indicating she was certainly telling the truth, "...see you round..."

Jean seemed a little hurt that she didn't want to spend a little more time with him, but accepted that she just wanted some peace, so he turned around, saying, "...well done, Patricia. I was always the one worried about you, always fearing that you couldn't solve an incident on your own, but you did it..." Jean suddenly turned back, and put his hand inside his cloak pocket, pulling out a hakkero, "...here, have one of my hakkeros. You've earned it..."

"Sorry about losing the other one..." Patricia said with a slightly ashamed tone.

"It's okay... I'm just glad you're safe." Jean said as Patricia took the hakkero from him, "Hopefully you'll be able to use it better the next time you go on an adventure..."

"Thanks, Uncle Jean... I'll see you tomorrow, after I've slept." Patricia promised, "I'll visit both you and Aunty Marisa..."

Jean smiled to himself, and said, "...ah yes... your Aunty Marisa... you might want to ask her about a few things tomorrow. Well, goodbye!"

Jean clicked his heels and made his broom speed off into the forest, leaving Patricia alone. Walking towards the Hakurei Shrine, Patricia yawned, hoping for a nice, quiet house to return to.

However, upon entering, she heard a slurred rendition of the word, "SURPRISE!" and saw that Reimu and Suika were standing in front of the door, waiting for her to enter.

The shrine-squatting oni decided to speak up first, saying, "Reimu said that I had to start a party for ya, so I did! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear what's-her-name... happy birthday to you!"

With that, Suika collapsed, and Reimu laughed to herself slightly, "...heh heh, I see Jean got you home safe..."

"Huh? Uncle Jean said you were out fighting Marisa..." Patricia questioned, "...what happened?"

"Oh, I just teleported out of the battle..." Reimu replied, "...she's probably still flying around looking for me as we speak... anyway, I got Suika to give us some of her sake and make us a 'traditional Oni dish'..."

"But... I don't drink sake..." Patricia replied, clearly not feeling like partying, "...I thought you said I was too young for it..."

"It's a special occasion!" Reimu said, "Did you honestly think I didn't care about you solving your first incident! You did awesome, Patricia! I like how you used some of the old techniques to take that thing down! And when you started going up close and beating it up, too... give your mum a hug!"

Totally ignoring the slip, Patricia smiled, and hugged her adoptive mother, glad to be home. After the hug, Reimu poured from Suika's abandoned gourd, filling two cups, and handed one to Patricia while taking one for herself.

"Okay, Patty, bottoms up!" Reimu declared, holding out her cup, "Cheers!"

"Cheers!" Patricia parroted, hitting her cup against Reimu's.

"Cheers!" Suika called from the floor, before getting up and grabbing her gourd, downing a good five gulps before saying, "I need to remember to drink more..."

Suika decided to tend to her 'Oni dish', and the two shrine maidens decided to relax, Patricia telling Reimu all about her adventure in the underground. Reimu was so enamoured with listening to her adoptive daughter's story that she forgot entirely to scold her for learning magic with Marisa and Jean...

...the two ate heartily, and had a pleasant afternoon together, Patricia feeling content that her hard work had paid off... but for some, the hard work was only just beginning...

_The Dawitsu Mansion, around the time of Patricia's return..._

Ran and Chen had been spending their time in the Dawitsu Mansion admittedly in a rather empty way- they had simply been playing through the many video games in Dawitsu's collection, and had just begun playing a game called 'Moonwalker', in which a strange person named 'Michael' went around, dancing and attacking people within the same effeminate body motions.

"I can kinda see where Dawi gets it from..." Chen remarked.

Ran, who was only half-focused on the game, said, "What are you talking about? Well, I guess he is an amazing dancer..."

Chen sighed to herself, "Ran-sama, how would you feel if I brought a boy back here? Or a girl, for that matter?"

Ran paused the game in a panic, and quickly said, "Chen, are you trying to tell me something?"

Chen grinned, and took the controller off of Ran, stealing her turn and continuing to play as the bizarre, dancing man of doom. Ran sighed, knowing she should have known better than to be tricked by her Shikigami.

Suddenly, the door opened, or rather, was kicked open, and Dawitsu flew into the foyer carrying the remains of the Gizoid, screaming, "IT'S... INTACT!"

Ran didn't even turn to look at her husband, saying, "...isn't the line 'Hello honey, I'm home'? You promised you'd say that at some point..."

"Hey, Ran, look what I got back!" Dawitsu shouted in a sufficiently enthusiastic manner to draw Ran's attention away from a virtual Michael Jackson, "Isn't it awesome? Patricia got the job done really quickly, but..."

Ran walked up to her husband, and cocked her head at the sight of the android, "...it's... missing its legs."

Chen paused the game and skipped up to the two to see what the fuss was all about, and said, "Is that the Gizoid thing you were talking about? It looks broken..."

"Well, it is, but I can fix it!" Dawitsu replied, "And that's the first thing I'm gonna do! I'm gonna fix it so it's brand new!"

Chen sighed, "That means we're still not gonna see much of you, does it, Dawi?"

Ran nodded, "...perhaps you should take a break and play some games with us instead, honey..."

Dawitsu cringed a little at being called a product of regurgitation of nectar by members of the order Hymenoptera, and decided that actually, it was a little unfair to reject members of the small group he could call 'family' just so he could fix up his 'ultimate weapon'...

A small smile on his face, Dawitsu said, "Okay, I'll play games with you guys... let me just plug it into the electricity source in my office..."

"Okay, but if you don't come back down in half an hour, I'll be going up there to drag you back down here..." Ran warned, "Chen's been missing you lately, and Yukari's run you ragged. You need to rest..."

Dawitsu nodded, "Yeah... I do need the rest... I guess I can pull an all-nighter on the Gizoid, it shouldn't take too long to repair, what with mark two's body parts being already assembled..."

Ran gave the mimicker a concerned look, and then said, "...if you insist, but remember... for now, you're playing Moonwalker with us..."

"You're playing Moonwalker?" Dawitsu asked, his eyes lighting up, "Oh, don't worry, I'll be down as soon as possible! God, what a game!"

Rushing into one of his mansion's many lifts, Dawitsu pressed the button for the top floor with his foot, and waited around awkwardly, almost as if the presence of the unconscious Gizoid was with him in the elevator.

The lift stopped, and Dawitsu exited it, walking through his massive library. A book sprouted teeth and left the shelf of its own volition, but all it took was Dawitsu saying, "Down, boy." to make it return back to its shelf.

Getting to a door marked 'Mah Office: Knock before Entry!', Dawitsu kicked open said door, revealing a rather large room dressed up to resemble a discotheque. While there was many a table, his focus was a large metallic work desk to the side of the room, which the mimicker proceeded to place the apodal android onto.

Pulling some sort of extension cord to the table and picking up a small device that appeared to be a plug converter, Dawitsu set up a small electricity supplication device, and pushed the end into the back of the downed android, who, after a short period, began to move again, albeit very slowly.

Dawitsu looked upon the thing in pity as its eyes began to glow, and it quietly stated, "Location unknown. Hardware change detected. Device missing."

The mimicker tapped the robot on its shoulder, and said, "You're back home... in my office. The missing hardware you're detecting is your legs. I'll get you fixed up in no time..."

"Where is... my master?" the robot asked.

"Don't worry about her for now." Dawitsu replied, "You're very damaged, and you need to rest up. I may not be your master any more, but I recommend you go into hibernation mode until I fix you up. Hey, if you can dream, you can dream of your master, eh? Did I program dreaming into you? Hmm... anyway, I have to go for now. Try and rest up, okay?"

"...understood. Hibernating..." the robot said, its voice becoming lower-pitched as its eyes stopped glowing.

Dawitsu sighed, and mumbled, "Sorry..." before leaving his office to perform what he considered far more trivial tasks, like playing Moonwalker with Ran and Chen...

_The Dawitsu Mansion was moderately lively, and in the end, they brought down what Dawitsu called a 'Nintendo Gamecube', a device which had several games even Ran had not played yet. They decided to play one of the many video games titled 'Mario Party' followed by a number, and had a good time betraying one another and in general ruining their friendships. Once Ran and Chen had gone to sleep, Dawitsu's insomnia kicked in, and he finally had the excuse necessary to begin working on the damaged Gizoid..._

_Jean had returned to Marisa's house to find it was empty, however, late in the evening, Marisa returned, revealing she had got bored of looking for Reimu and instead decided to steal a few books from Alice's place. She was successful, and so the two spent the evening learning spells from Marisa's pilfered spell-books, occasionally giving each other glances from behind the books... who's to say how they spent their night afterwards..._

_Patricia and Reimu, however... they had a remarkably quiet 'party'. Beyond her enthusiastic storytelling, they mostly spent their time playing simple games like Shogi, drinking sake, and in general relaxing, rather than doing anything crazy. The closest thing to a _children's _party they did was play 'pin the tail on the passed-out Suika', but even then, it was more controlled than any true party. No, this was merely... a 'welcome back', a rest for a job well-done._

Author's Notes: Unfortunately for you guys, I'm not the kinda guy who rushes transitions. If a transition occurs, every detail and little bit of stuff will be shown. Well, I will cover over the truly boring stuff, but honestly, I love writing a little bit of calm stuff every now and then.

How truly...gen-fic of me.


	10. 10: Abandoning Brahma

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 10- Abandoning Brahma**

_The Dawitsu Mansion, twelve o'clock midnight_

While the majority of the Dawitsu Mansion was silent, the titular owner of the mansion's office was still making tiny longitudinal vibrations within the air that, if perceived by an ear, could be determined as sound.

Within the office, Dawitsu was about to start work on his labour of love, the Gizoid. He had put on his goggles, and looked down at the robot that lay on his work-desk.

Observing the melted ends of where its legs began, Dawitsu flinched, and muttered, "At least I didn't program pain into this guy, just damage detection... hmm... I wonder if that's the same thing... I guess it isn't... anyway, sorry, Gizoid, I'm gonna have to amputate..."

Going to a large cupboard, Dawitsu pulled out an angle grinder, and put on some earmuffs in preparation. Hoping that his work wouldn't be _too _disruptive to Ran and Chen's sleep, he plugged the ridiculously dangerous device into a socket on his wall, and picked it up, flicking it on and beginning his work properly.

Unflinchingly sawing off the broken nubs at the Gizoid's waist, Dawitsu encountered few problems, besides accidentally setting fire to his cloak due to the sheer amount of sparks that flew from the process of 'amputation', but one fire extinguisher's worth of foam and another session of angle grinding, and Dawitsu had finished the first part of his all-nighter of robotics.

At this point, he muttered, "...time to get mark two's legs, I guess..."

Dawitsu walked to another cupboard, where a set of grey, unpainted robotic limbs were hanging from cords the same way meat hangs in a butcher's shop... there was even a duplicate torso and head of the Gizoid. Dawitsu looked at the ensemble of parts, and a little part of him seemed... full of regret, as if there was something stopping him...

"...mark two..." Dawitsu mused, "...I swear, I'll make you at some point, but... but I have to fix mark one first... you don't mind if I borrow your legs, do you?"

Dawitsu suddenly removed his goggles, and covered his face with his hand, slowly dragging it downwards from his eyes to his chin... he really was sleep-deprived if he was having one-sided conversations with robots that had neither been activated nor had personality programmed into them yet... it was no better than Yutaka when she chatted with her Raggedy Andy doll...

Deciding to stop talking with nothing _and _stop reminiscing about the past, Dawitsu took the legs from the cupboard, and placed them on the metallic work-desk, in front of the Gizoid's torso so that they would be easily 'slotted into' the waist of the robot.

Retrieving a soldering iron and a blowtorch from the same place as he did his angle grinder, Dawitsu put his goggles back on and got to work on the precision areas of the all-nighter... soldering the wires within the legs to the slightly damaged wires of the waist, and finally, sealing the area by blow-torching the outer metallic layer, so the legs were well and truly attached to the joints of the robot's 'hips'.

For the finishing touches, the mimicker got out a set of spray-paint, and coloured in the legs to fit the rest of the Gizoid's yellow and black colour scheme. Smiling at his finished work, he decided to test that his handiwork was complete.

Unplugging the Gizoid from its 'life support', Dawitsu turned his robot over and opened up a panel on the back of its head, pressing a button that was labelled 'manual awakening'. Closing the panel, Dawitsu stepped back and watched the robot's eyes light up as it regained 'consciousness'.

Lying face-down, the machine stated, "Scanning for hardware changes..."

Dawitsu folded his arms, and took his goggles off, saying, "...yeah, you got yourself some shiny new legs, Gizoid!"

Pushing itself so it was kneeling on the table, before reorientating itself so that it was sitting with its legs folded, before further changing its position so that it was standing on the table, it finally seemed satisfied.

"New hardware is suitable for purpose." the robot declared, "Your work is competent."

"I don't know why I programmed you to talk like that, but it has a certain charm..." Dawitsu replied, "So, welcome home, Gizoid. You want to rest up here? I've got plenty of petroleum jelly up here if you want to top up on lubricant..."

"Where is my master?" the robot changed the subject out of the blue, surprising Dawitsu somewhat.

"Hey, just wait a second, aren't you at least a little bit glad to see me, your creator, again? I showed you how to shoot energy bullets, remember? Fired a heavy bazooka so you could capture its mechanism?" Dawitsu asked desperately, "You do remember all the fun we had, right?"

"That was merely necessary for the mission I was programmed for." the Gizoid stated, "That was not what I consider... 'fun'."

Dawitsu's eyes widened- this behaviour was new... it was acting with a free-willed, emotions-based AI. It was almost as if something had changed when it had been in contact with Utsuho Reiuji...

"Gizoid, did Utsuho do something to you when you worked for her?" Dawitsu asked.

The robot made a deep, negative-sounding beeping sound, "I am not obligated to answer that question. You are no longer my master."

The Gizoid began to activate its jet-pack, and Dawitsu began to panic, "G-Gizoid, please wait, I have something to show you..."

The robot deactivated its jet-pack, and turned its head to its creator, "...what is it?"

Dawitsu proceeded to gesture to the cupboard he had got the legs the Gizoid was currently using, and opened it, allowing the robot to take it all in.

"Look... I... intended to build you a little brother, see?" Dawitsu said with a nervous smile, "You're currently using your brother's legs... I wanted you guys to form a little gang, a group of..."

"You intended to use me to cause a false incident to test Biotic: Patricia Hakurei." the robot stated.

"No! No!" Dawitsu stammered, "Look, when Marisa activated you, she didn't know the password to activate what I _really _wanted from you... after Yukari gave up on the incident, I wanted to put the password into you as soon as possible..."

"What is the input method?" the Gizoid asked.

"It's..." Dawitsu stepped back a few steps, and sidestepped so he was directly behind his creation, "...right here, in the back of your head. I press a button, say the password, and the program activates."

The robot failed to turn and face its creator to ask, "What is the program's purpose?"

"It'll erase your drive to acquire attacks. You'll still be able to, but your concept of master registry will disappear." Dawitsu explained, "You'll be truly free-willed, an AI without such constraints as 'primary directives'. You'll finally be our... Gizoid, I never told you about Ran and I..."

"...will hard drive retain memory data acquired prior to input of password?" the robot asked, clearly having its own concerns.

"Yeah, you'll remember everything, but see it in a new light..." Dawitsu replied, "Or at least, that's what my 'hindsight' program was meant to enable the program to do. Anyway, it's up to you if you want me to input the password..."

The Gizoid stopped, and after a very short time processing the information it had received, it nodded. Dawitsu nodded himself, and unscrewed the panel on the back of the Gizoid's head, and pressed a button labelled 'password input'.

Suddenly, the Gizoid's eyes changed colour from blue to a pale shade of red, and it began to say things, seemingly not of its own volition, "Gizoid Prototype Mark One is currently in password input mode. If you have accidentally entered this mode, press any button. If you have intentionally entered this mode, state password via auditory methods."

Dawitsu smiled, and said, "Gizoid, as your creator, I command you to... BECOME A REAL BOY!"

At this, the automaton twitched, and its eyes returned to its original shade of blue. Dawitsu closed the panel and screwed it back into place, and then zipped around the robot so it could see him.

"So..." Dawitsu awkwardly asked, "...feel any different?"

"I... am experiencing... internal stimuli pertaining to... freedom." the robot mused, "Searching directory for master registry... file does not exist. Thank... you..."

"It's quite alright, Gizoid." Dawitsu replied, "So, you wanna have some petroleum jelly now?"

"Where is Biotic: Utsuho Reiuji?" the robot reiterated, "I do not wish to stay here..."

Dawitsu sighed to himself... just as he had begun to think it would stay with him, safe and out of the way, it still insisted on leaving him. It as if there was something more to the robot, something it wasn't telling him...

"...hey, if I tell you where to go from here, will you tell me why you want to leave?" Dawitsu asked.

"Utsuho Reiuji is what I consider to be a 'friend'." the robot simply stated, its tone completely even.

Dawitsu looked down in a little shame, and muttered, "Well, I guess I didn't really spend much time talking with you and developing your personality... if she was nice to you, I'd also prefer her to me... well, I guess this is goodbye, then. I can't stop you. Utsuho Reiuji is probably still in the underground, where I programmed you to go to start the fake incident."

"Accessing memory banks..." the robot muttered, before beeping, "...destination set to Palace of the Earth Spirits. Probability of another encounter with creator: low."

Dawitsu looked at his creation, and teared up a little, "...so... so that's it, you're just leaving? Not so much as a goodbye? Come on, give your creator a hug!"

The mimicker opened his arms, ready to receive a hug, however, the robot cocked its head, confused at the action. It opened its arms in a similar manner, before putting its arms back down as soon as Dawitsu gave up on trying to get it to hug him. The Gizoid activated its jet-pack, and began to fly towards the large office window.

"...well, you mustn't like me all that much..." Dawitsu mumbled, "...look, Gizoid, I'm... I'm sorry. You'll be happier over there... Gizoid... I'm so sorry I made you do all this..."

"Recurrent misidentification of myself on your part noted." the robot mused, not turning to face its creator, "I am not 'Gizoid'. I am 'Okuu Junior'."

With that, the Gizoid flared up its jet-pack, and sped out of the office, naturally by crashing straight through the window, and left Dawitsu standing in silence as he looked at his creation abandon him...

...the hole in the window let in a gust of wind due to the high altitude, and so, Dawitsu stood, the wind making his half-burnt cloak billow as his posture became more and more hunched. Finally, he decided to shuffle out of his office, into his library, and furthermore into his lift.

Taking it to the floor that his 'private quarters' were on, Dawitsu entered his bedroom, to find that the bedside lamp was on, with Ran sitting up in bed, wide awake despite otherwise fully prepared for sleep.

She seemed to have a concerned look on her face, and mumbled, "I heard everything..."

"...I knew I should have given it a name..." Dawitsu mused.

"...we both didn't want to admit it..." Ran said, sighing, "...we... we weren't kind enough to it. I wish you'd have let me talk to it more..."

"...but I didn't want us getting attached to it because of Yukari making me program it with..." Dawitsu began to say, "...I'm just glad Chen didn't really get to know it..."

"Yeah, she'd have been upset if she... if she..." Ran started to cry, and weakly finished off her sentence, "...if she began to see it as a sibling..."

Dawitsu looked to his wife, and, for whatever reason, smiled as tears came streaming out of his eyes, "...you know what, Ran, I never realised this... I'm so stupid..."

Ran sniffed a little, "What is it?"

"...perhaps we... perhaps we don't need to have kids together..." Dawitsu said with a smile, "Perhaps we've been missing out on real family- Chen has always kinda been your kid, right? Who cares if she wasn't 'ours' at first, and who cares if I came in later... you know, it's sorta like that grumpy bitch that lives under us. She doesn't care that Patricia ain't hers, does she..."

Ran nodded, wiping tears from her eyes, "I... guess she doesn't. Well, at least... at least it's going to be happy wherever it is. I suppose it's all over."

"I suppose it is..." Dawitsu replied, and began to remove his clothes so he was down to his underwear, climbing into bed with Ran, "...say, we should throw a post-incident party now that everything's solved..."

"Not everything..." Ran pointed out, "...remember, we haven't figured out who activated the Gizoid in the first place..."

"...didn't you overhear?" Dawitsu replied, "It was Marisa, trying to steal from us as usual... however, usually, someone with that role would turn out to be an... OH, DAMN IT!"

Ran looked at her unpredictable husband with a slight exasperation, "...what is it now?"

"Marisa's stole the extra-boss position away from me! I was looking forward to fighting Patricia a second time, too..." Dawitsu whined.

"Oh well, I guess the young girl's safe no matter who she fights..." Ran replied, "...you're too nice to that human girl, I swear..."

"Perhaps, perhaps..." Dawitsu acknowledged, yawning, "...oh, I'm tired... night night, Ran..."

"Night night, darling..." Ran mused, and turned the light off before Dawitsu could call her out for her cringe-inducing nicknames...

_The foot of the Youkai Mountain, about half an hour later_

Sitting in a tree that grew at the foot of the Youkai Mountain were a couple of fairies, ones which were waiting in ambush of anything that so much as moved nearby. Why they were doing it they themselves had forgotten, but apparently it was something to do with pranking... with... danmaku shots.

Yes, truly their memory span was more poor than a goldfish's, which, for the record, is rather longer than people expect, and unlike fairies, goldfish have the capacity to learn patterns and gain enough understanding to develop fear responses.

And certainly, the fairies could have used some goldfish-like intelligence, as it would have made them associate the whirring noise of a certain robot passing by with fear instead of a foolish attempt to prank it. Jumping out of the tree, the two fairies instantly found themselves disintegrated by a pair of laser-guided missiles aimed precisely at them.

"Biotic species known as fairies possess a low Intelligence Quotient." the automaton stated, "Their infinite regenerative capacity is poorly utilised by them. Determining location: cavern entrance nearby."

Gliding across the ground, the robot searched for the cave, and after noticing a pile of ash which acted as some sort of indicator to it, it looked to its right and saw a hole in the side of the great mountain it was at the foot of.

"Cavern entrance detected." the robot declared out loud, and it deactivated its jet-pack, walking on its brand-new legs.

Entering the cave, its auditory receptors picked up a strange snorting sound, and instantly, it switched itself onto high alert, converting its right hand into an arm cannon. However, once it turned to the source of the noise, it allowed its hand to return... what its visual detection system perceived was a certain hell-raven, who was sleeping against the hard cavern wall, snoring obnoxiously as she did so.

The robot walked up to the raven slowly, and examined her, not quite sure if it understood what she was doing. Looking at her closed eyes, it slowly extended its hand, gently touching her eyelid to check what on earth was going on. Retracting its hand in fear of harming her, it looked downwards, and found her left hand.

Kneeling to her level, the robot took her by the hand with a grip strong enough to make her stir in her sleep, and finally, open her eyes to quite a shock.

Screaming instinctively as she stood up, she yelled, "I'm not going to the above-ground, I swear, I'm just waiting for a non-youkai!"

Okuu Junior stood up and stepped back from Utsuho, and asked, "Do you not recognise me?"

"Okuu... Okuu Junior?" Utsuho asked, her bearings finally straight enough to recognise her 'pet'.

"Yes. Okuu Junior." the robot stated, a strange warmth somehow coming from the monotonous voice, "I have returned to you out of personal preference."

Utsuho smiled, and hugged the robot with little to no warning, "Oh, it is you! You're back! I was afraid your creator might try to mess with you, but it's you! I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry for putting you in danger! You forgive me, right?"

"Amount of data too great to process simultaneously." the robot stated, "What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you a hug!" Utsuho explained, tightening her grip, "It's because I was so worried about you!"

"Understood. Initiating 'hug'." Okuu Junior declared, and slowly brought its arms around Utsuho, before finally squeezing in an awkward, yet seemingly genuine embrace, "...this process is inducing internal stimuli pertaining to... happiness."

"Well, I'll hug you all the time if you want!" Utsuho replied, further tightening her already constrictive grip, "I'll hug you and hug you and never let you get hurt again!"

"Please release. Damage may result from continual application of moderate pressure." the robot requested in the most bizarre way possible.

"Okay!" Utsuho said in a cheerful manner, letting go of her victim, "Oh, Okuu Junior! I'm so glad you're alright..."

"...former objectives were failed." Okuu Junior stated.

"Oh, that doesn't matter! I command you to stop trying to help me take over the above-ground, okay?" Utsuho reassured the robot, "None of that matters, I was... just being stupid..."

"You are no longer my master." the robot stated, "Software modifications were made, but an arbitrary decision was made by me, which has resulted in my return to you regardless of Master Registry..."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked.

Extending its right hand, the robot explained, "I no longer require a master, but my best friend... is you. Permission to hold hand?"

"Permission granted..." Utsuho said with a smile, and held the android's hand, "...so, you're all better... look, Okuu Junior, I was thinking that maybe you need to help fix the Ancient City... it looked pretty wrecked when I passed it..."

"Understood. Reconstruction of former targets will initiate upon arrival." Okuu Junior replied, "Initiating journey to Ancient City."

Utsuho looked to her 'pet' with a certain pride... she didn't quite understand what its creator had done to it, but it seemed even he was fine with 'Okuu Junior' being in her hands... perhaps if she began to help rectify its wrongs, she would be on the path to redemption in the eyes of the underground, and more importantly, in the eyes of her mistress and Orin...

_The Hakurei Shrine, Main Building, seven ante-meridian the next day_

The main building of the Hakurei Shrine was a veritable mess after the so-called 'party', mostly thanks to Suika, who seemed to be the only truly disorderly 'party animal' in the house. Thankfully, at such a time as seven in the morning, such drunkards as Suika were safely passed out, sleeping on the floor next to Patricia's futon.

As the sun half-shined in through the translucent shrine doors, Patricia's body clock forced her wide awake in a flash, and instantly, she got to making herself some Miso Soup... she thought for a moment of getting Reimu up, but soon decided against the idea, as she probably needed an off day today.

Once she made herself her breakfast, she sat around the house, thinking to herself about the sheer madness she had gone through... was this really what Reimu had gone through countless times in the past? Consecutive battles that got more and more difficult the further along she went? An experience that cumulated into a near-death experience _every single time_?

Looking down at her legs, she noticed they were still red and blistered... the burns on them seemed like they were permanent, and would be reminders of her adventure. This wasn't good... Dawitsu mentioned getting herself a boy, but with burns like that, it was likely she wouldn't find one. Patricia smiled to herself, and figured that a boy would only get in the way of her incident-solving career...

While they hurt ever so slightly, once she stopped focusing on the injury and re-established focus on eating her breakfast, the pain seemed to disappear. Once she finished her breakfast, she stopped and thought to herself... what exactly was there left to do? What things were on her list to do for the day?

It irritated Patricia that regardless of how tired she was, she always got up with the sun, even if she had absolutely no plans. So, Patricia, bored out of her mind, actively _searched _for unnecessary things to do. She began to look for what was missing in the little puzzle that was the former incident... then Patricia came to an epiphany...

...something that the most-likely deceased Chibi Clone of Dawitsu said... something about how Dawitsu didn't release the Gizoid of his own volition... someone... or something... most likely accidentally released it... that was it! Whoever that was, that was the extra boss! It had to be!

Getting herself properly dressed, Patricia walked out of her home and kicked off the ground, floating straight upwards and pressing a button next to the front door of the Dawitsu Mansion.

After a slight pause, a very tired-looking mimicking youkai opened the door, his sleep-filled eyes staring emptily at the shrine maiden.

"Do... you need help?" Patricia asked tentatively, just in case it was a bad time.

After an unnaturally long pause, Dawitsu finally came to using mouth-words, "...I'm fine... it's just... I've only just got up. What's up, Patricia?"

"Well... it's about the incident..." Patricia began to say, before the groggy mimicker interrupted her.

"If you want the Gizoid, it ran away again." Dawitsu said in a tone that implied he was a little irate about the situation, "Don't worry, it won't be doing anything crazy this time..."

"No, it's not that." Patricia explained, "One of your clones said something about that robot being accidentally set off by someone or something, and not by you. Any idea who that is?"

"Oh, it's Marisa." Dawitsu stated monotonously, "Can I go back to bed now?"

"Um... you're just giving me the information for free?" Patricia asked, "No mid-boss fight, no explanation? Nothing?"

"What do you want from me, I'm tired..." Dawitsu muttered, "...honestly, it's Saturday, can't a guy have a weekend's peace?"

"Wow, you're definitely not extra boss material..." Patricia mused, "...and here's me thinking you were going to be the extra boss, being the creator of that thing and everything..."

"I _am _extra boss material!" Dawitsu groggily yelled, "But not today. Now let me sleep, I've been working all night!"

Before Patricia could reply, Dawitsu had slammed the door in her face. Patricia made a mental note that people in general preferred to sleep more than she did, and that perhaps a little extra hours sleep for herself may not go amiss, given that she wouldn't be able to deal with anyone at such early hours anyway.

However, Patricia was rather excited at the knowledge that Marisa was the ultimate cause of the incident... she was pretty sure she knew why she was there... it was probably to steal some books... suddenly, Patricia was hit with another epiphany, causing her to mentally note that investing in a counter-epiphany helmet may save her some pain in the future.

The physically painful epiphany was that Jean had advised Patricia to ask Marisa about something... so clearly, he knew about this little fact, too. Not only that, it seemed that he wanted something like an extra boss fight to occur between the two.

In fact, as far as Marisa would be concerned, the entire affair would be like one massive training exercise to her, an opportunity for Marisa to show off her many spells, and an opportunity for Patricia to marvel at the same spells she'd never get to properly learn.

Her excitement, and her overall preoccupied nature regarding the whole event, made her want to do nothing more than rush straight over to Marisa's house, regardless of the ridiculous time, especially by the two magicians' standards.

Naturally, being a thirteen year-old, she went with her 'wants', and went to Marisa's house in spite of common sense dictating that she'd be asleep. Flying through the forest, she noticed that the way there was unusually fraught with danger, as if the fairies over there had been undergoing some kind of unusual enhancement.

Smaller fairies fired massive, insanely speedy, yet uniform lines of bullets, while the larger ones unleashed massive barrages of strange, small blades known by knife enthusiasts as 'kunai', rendering Patricia rather stumped as to how on earth fairies managed to have the patience to learn how to become so fearsome.

A strange glowing ball appeared in front of her after a short while of mercilessly shooting down fairies, and naturally, did what all the other sentient beings in the immediate area seemed to be doing at the time- shooting energy spheres at her. It unleashed spiral-shaped barrages of tiny bullets, random clouds of slower-moving, larger bullets, and outright unpredictable sets of lasers.

Patricia was forced to bomb, however, regardless of what she did or threw at the literal oddball, it went straight through it. However, the orb also seemed to tire easily, and threw a few half-hearted streams of danmaku before disappearing.

After yet another wave of fairies and three more bombs from Patricia, and she _finally _got to Marisa's house, surprised she was alive at all.

"What on earth is up with the forest fairies today?" Patricia remarked to herself, "It's like they've gone insane..."

Knocking on the door of the western-styled house in front of her, Patricia waited a realistically long amount of time before the tell-tale sounds of someone going down the stairs to answer the door were heard. Despite someone had clearly gone downstairs, Jean, to Patricia's surprise, was the one to answer the door.

His hair was extremely messy, and his shirt was only half-done, his cloak completely missing. Despite looking extremely tired, he was wearing a particularly unsettling smile on his face that almost negated his tiredness altogether.

"Oh... hello, Patricia." Jean greeted his 'niece' of sorts, "You decided to visit... er... earlier than expected..."

"Uncle Jean, I found something cool out!" Patricia said to Jean, "Aunty Marisa was the one who set off the robot-thing and caused the whole incident, isn't she? That's what you wanted me to ask her, wasn't it?"

"Wow... you... you're... um... quick..." Jean mused, and walked into the kitchen, gesturing so that Patricia would follow him, "...do you... er... want tea?"

Patricia wasn't sure why, but Jean seemed a little... skittish. Trying to ignore it, she simply nodded her head, "Sure, I'll have some."

Jean changed his smile to seem a little more child-friendly, and lit the magical orbs Marisa used as hobs, boiling some water in a pan. Patricia stood in silence and watched him, causing him to laugh nervously and say, "If you like, you can wait in the study..."

"Okay..." Patricia replied, jumping at the opportunity to leave the awkward situation.

However, upon entering the study, she noticed something that made the situation even more awkward... the sofa which Jean usually slept on was... perfectly made, as if he had not just woken up... at least not from that bed... coupled with the fact he had audibly walked down the stairs...

Patricia came to a sickening realisation, and simply tried to avert her mind from what she considered a highly gross aberration of human nature... or at least, an aberration that appeared too late for people their age.

Knowing she wouldn't... quite be able to look Jean or Marisa in the same way again, she decided she'd stay mum about her most recent painful epiphany that had hit her like a gold brick with a slice of lemon wrapped around it. Instead, as Jean walked into the room with two cups of tea and an attempt at a friendly smile, Patricia simply accepted her tea with a 'thank you'.

"You're quite welcome, Patricia..." Jean mused, "...I decided to discuss it with Marisa last night, and..."

Patricia tried her best not to interrupt her 'Uncle', but she blurted out a sarcastic response anyway, "...one thing led to another?"

"What?" Jean asked, suddenly becoming nervous.

"What?" Patricia replied back, playing dumb to her previous remark, "What was it that Aunty Marisa had to say?"

"Oh..." Jean said, seemingly ignorant of Patricia's snark, "...she said she managed to steal a book called 'Ultimate Game Boy Advance FAQs', and another called 'Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and how to build a robot that ignores them'... she found them utterly useless, as you can imagine..."

"...huh." Patricia said, very little enthusiasm in her voice, "So, she started off an incident for nothing?"

"It would seem so..." Jean said, "...she said that the robot was very frightening, and stared at her, saying something like 'Bionic Marisa Kirisame', or something..."

"I..." Patricia was finding it very difficult not to try and address the relative elephant in the room, given that the forthcoming danmaku battle was expected, yet... _that _wasn't.

"Is something wrong, Patricia?" Jean asked.

"Oh, nothing. So, what else did she talk about?" Patricia tried her best to continue the conversation.

"She said that she has a big surprise for you, and is going to do something she did for a fairy a long, long time ago..." Jean said, his tone slightly vague, "...I don't know what she's talking about, though... the only thing she ever seems to do to fairies is shoot them..."

Patricia wasn't surprised that Marisa planned on having a shoot-out with her, but was a little insulted that she considered her on par with a fairy... unless the fairy was something special. At this point, the conversation had withered away, and the two had found themselves in an awkward silence.

Patricia then decided to ask the terminally stupid question of, "So, did you do anything else last night?"

Jean simply blushed, and at this point, a certain someone burst into the room, as scruffily half-dressed as Jean, shouting, "God, I'm knackered. Hey, Jean, why'd you get up so early, I was looking forward to pillow..."

The unfortunate man pointed out Patricia silently to Marisa, who laughed a little, before backing out of the room, "...heh heh, Patty, you didn't hear anything... one minute while I get dressed, I'll be right back!"

_Patricia could only do one thing to cope with the profoundly uncomfortable situation, and that was to face-palm with great aplomb, covering her eyes so as to not receive related electromagnetic wave-based stimuli that would remind her of the horrible situation. This was certainly not an event she could repeat to Reimu..._

Author's Notes: Vague narration is not vague.

Interestingly enough, I think this chapter has the highest narration to dialogue ratio out of all the chapters in this fic so far.

And it's wasted on a filler- I mean- transitional chapter. Oh, don't worry, the next chapter will be the extra boss. You know how it is, the extra stages always have a freakin' prologue. In fact, I'd say this is shorter than the average ZUN-based extra prologue.

Or... something. Ugggh. I'm falling into old habits. They die. Hard. Blam.


	11. 11: Three to Tango

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 11- Three to Tango**

_Marisa's House, the Forest of Magic, shortly after the events of last chapter_

Due to Marisa's less-than-thoughtful outburst, Jean had left the study that Patricia and himself were sitting in, and seemed to be discussing something with Marisa from a distance.

Patricia sat in the study in silence, drinking the tea she had in front of her while attempting to covertly overhear the gossip-worthy dialogue. In the end, all she could decipher from the conversation was the louder of the two, Marisa, saying, 'She's not a kid, you know', 'Reimu's jealous of...' and 'I have a boss fight to perform'.

Patricia knew what to expect, and turned to the entrance of the study, looking at Marisa and Jean as they entered, "So, you done having your 'adult conversation'?"

Marisa folded her arms, taking the defensive, "Look, Patty, we're both adults, and we can do whatever the hell we want."

"Hey, I don't have a problem with... whatever you guys do with each other." Patricia replied, "It's just a shock, I didn't really think Uncle Jean would really do that kind of stuff..."

Jean shrugged his shoulders, "...ha ha, as a certain Youkai Man said, I may be an old man, but I am still a man..."

"Old my ass!" Marisa remarked, before deciding to change the subject, "So, I take it Jean told you all about what happened? How I, the great Marisa, am responsible for everything?"

Patricia's expression became somewhat snide, "...last time I checked, you only accidentally made that thing go on a rampage. Dawitsu still created the thing... you know, he mentioned something about wanting to be the extra boss..."

Marisa smiled to herself, "Ah, he's a funny guy. I'd say he's probably challenged me like an extra boss a fair few times. All in days gone by, of course..."

Jean rolled his eyes, "I don't know how you can look back on those days so fondly. When he fought me, I thought I was going to die..."

"He couldn't hurt a fly..." Marisa remarked, "...he's weird, even by Youkai standards. Like he's trying too hard to be a nice human or something. Anyway, I'm the ultimate cause of the incident! That means I'm the extra boss! Are you ready to fight me?"

"Well, I did fight someone who claimed to teach you your techniques in the Underground..." Patricia replied, standing up to talk to Marisa more closely, "...hmm, what was her name again? Mimi? Maimer? Minnie?"

Marisa's eyes widened, "Oh... you fought Mima? Wow, I haven't seen her in donkey's years, how is she?"

"She tried to kill me and knocked herself out by flying into the ceiling of the Palace of the Earth Spirits." Patricia summarised.

"Oh." Marisa mused, seemingly disappointed, "...she's gone down a few pegs since I last saw her. I, however, have only gone up in pegs! You'll see! Let's take this outside!"

Jean sighed, "...I had a feeling the 'surprise' you had for Patricia was a fight. Why must everyone in Gensokyo attack one another... I guess that's why I rather like Byakuren, she wants cessation of violence..."

"If Byakuren had her way, the natural order of Gensokyo would be disrupted! Patricia, you're up for a battle, right?" Marisa asked Patricia rather eagerly.

"Sure, I'm just hoping the battle won't be a disappointment..." Patricia said with a hint of arrogance.

Marisa cackled a little to herself, "You're becoming more and more like Reimu with every passing day. Come on, let's go!"

The witch proceeded to run towards the door, and picked up her broom along the way, flying out of her house as Patricia followed them.

Jean sighed to himself, "...why are the women in Gensokyo so trigger-happy?"

After the two flew into the sky and got themselves settled and content with their position in the air, Marisa laid back on her broom, "So, what techniques did Mima show you?"

"Um... something called Orrerie's... uh... Galaxy, or something, a big laser that was kinda like your 'Master Spark', a thing with lots of hakkeros on the floor, and then she used her big laser to fly at me..." Patricia listed vaguely, however, Marisa seemed to understand them perfectly.

"Damn, those are some of my best techniques..." Marisa remarked, getting out a load of pieces of paper, "Which spell-cards do I have left which aren't fairy-exclusive? Huh? Only five? That sucks, I can't be an extra boss with just five spells..."

"Hey! Hey! I have... I have spells!" a voice called out from behind Patricia.

Patricia turned around to see an unkempt Dawitsu floating in front of her, causing her to put her hands on her hips, "Oh, so now you want to fight me, huh? Well, it's too late, Marisa got there first!"

Dawitsu laughed a little to himself, "Well, I'm still tired, so I'll let you off easy. Anyway, when you visited, I wanted to go back to sleep, but an awesome idea struck me! Now, excuse me, I need to talk to your Aunty Marisa..."

Dawitsu flew past Patricia, and stopped flying to float next to the human witch, where he withdrew a deck of ten highly stylised cards. He was whispering something to Marisa, pointing at each card individually, as if he was explaining something. Marisa's facial expressions varied from 'confused', to 'impressed', and back to 'confused' again. After this exchange, Marisa took five of the cards for herself, and left Dawitsu with five cards on his person.

Finally, the human of the pair spoke up, and said, "Patricia, guess what this idiot's genius plan is?"

Patricia already knew what the plan was, "You're gonna fight me together, aren't you?"

Dawitsu and Marisa both cackled together in a manner resembling a pair of stereotypical witches, before the former said, "And even better, we have combination spell-cards I devised just this morning! These are brand-new, never-seen-before spell-cards! Prepare yourself!"

"I was already prepared before you showed up." Patricia boasted.

Dawitsu cocked his head, "My, oh my, Marisa, she's getting cocky, isn't she? Just like her adoptive mother... I guess it's not enough to just look like her, huh? I always love a talented mimicker! Marisa, which spell-card do you wanna do first?"

"I think you can go first. We'll alternate from there." Marisa replied, "After all, I'd like to be the one to finish the battle."

"I like the way you think." Dawitsu complimented, "You and I should work together more often. Okay, here goes! Co-operation Sign: Cute Witch and Ugly Witch!"

Dawitsu got out a certain fake cigarette case, and covered himself in smoke, turning himself into a portly, green-skinned hag in a set of stereotypical witch clothes, complete with a purple scarf.

He flew over to Marisa's broom, and got on in front of her, saying in a scratchy, odd impersonation of a female voice, "I'll take control of this for the time being. You know what to do!"

Patricia armed herself with a set of persuasion needles on standby, and summoned two yin-yang orbs to fire homing amulets for her. Dawitsu began to maniacally cackle, and began to fly the broom so fast that it left a red trail behind it, his flight path straight for Patricia, with Marisa firing stars from the back the entire time.

The shrine maiden dodged, but not without getting disorientated as to where Marisa and Dawitsu were, however, Dawitsu handily solved this problem by laughing like an idiot once again. He caused the broom to charge, with Marisa this time adding lasers to the broom's fire-power. This time, the pair stopped right in front of Patricia, and for whatever reason, the broom began to splutter smoke and stop working.

"Huh? What's going on?" Marisa asked.

"Natural side-effect of having a multiple phases in a single spell-card." Dawitsu explained in his regular voice, before he felt several needles hit him in the posterior, causing him to switch back to his 'witch' voice, "Ouch, my butt, it's now quite sore, I'll make you suffer, that's for sure!"

Patricia rolled her eyes, "Great, so now he speaks in rhyme..."

Marisa decided to just keep firing regardless of what Dawitsu was doing, while the mimicker continued talking in an odd manner, "Magic spell of Patty homing, get her now to stop her roaming!"

Patricia was so busy dodging the barrage of stars Marisa was releasing from herself that she failed to notice the mimicker's hands, which glowed as he charged up an attack which, while only consisting of a single bullet, had the distinction of slowly homing towards her.

It was already too late by the time Patricia had noticed the bullet, and so she bombed, using 'Evil Sealing Circle' to clear the area, however, Dawitsu had generated a shield around he and Marisa, causing Marisa to laugh to herself.

"Ha! Bombing already, are we? That stuff doesn't work on we extra bosses, does it, Dawitsu?" Marisa asked, clearly having a blast with the whole event, "Hey, I wanna use a card, can you please get off my broom now?"

Dawitsu removed his disguise and hopped off, flying backwards so as to give the witch some space. Patricia could only wait to see what was next in the pair's arsenal.

"Okay, what was the name of the variant on Milky Way again?" Marisa got out one of the cards Dawitsu had given her, "...huh. Magic and Force Sign: The Milky Way and a Galaxy far, far away!"

Marisa proceeded to throw out a set of hakkeros, and fired from herself a spiral-like barrage of large stars, which was easy enough to dodge on its own, however, the hakkeros added to the threats by firing their own smaller stars in the general direction of Patricia.

Dawitsu seemed to simply be floating in place, doing nothing, and so Patricia decided to aim for him, throwing a set of persuasion needles his way, however, it was at this point the mimicker revealed his role: he thrust out his arms, and stopped the needles in mid-air, causing them to rotate and float around. After gathering a hemisphere of needles and amulets, Dawitsu brought his arms inwards, and then released them again, unleashing a kinetic blast that fired the projectiles in a quick, unpredictable, yet unsophisticated manner.

Patricia could only dodge, and hope for the best. It would seem that any attempts to attack were futile, as when she attempted to hit Marisa with her set of projectiles, Dawitsu provided her with the same amount of protection as he did for himself.

Marisa seemed impressed with this, and said, "If I knew I was invincible for this, I would have saved this for the survival card..."

"Well, I can't block absolutely everything at once..." Dawitsu began to say, before a yin-yang orb crashed into him, temporarily incapacitating him.

Patricia smirked as she weaved through the attack and fired a few persuasion needles at Marisa,causing her to flinch, "So, I guess I have to take out your protection to beat you..."

Marisa moved out of the way of Patricia's next set of needles, and accepted the inevitable homing amulets that inflicted the equivalent of a paper cut with every hit, "Well, aren't you smart..."

Marisa decided to up her game, and made the hakkeros moving along the side of Patricia move even quicker, releasing more waves of stars into the fray. However, without the addition of the unpredictable counter-attack provided by Dawitsu, the attack quickly became old.

Dawitsu, who was floating in a dazed state, finally came to, and shouted, "'kay, let's move on! Hunger Sign: Gulp's Unfortunate Ally! Marisa, you have any magic mushrooms on ya?"

"Well, yeah, but probably not the kind you're after..." Marisa mused.

"How many types?" Dawitsu asked.

"Hmm... three. One's explosive, though..." Marisa warned.

"Perfect! Throw me one!" Dawitsu demanded.

Marisa sighed, "If you insist..."

The witch took an orange mushroom with white speckles out of her seemingly limitless pockets, and threw it at Dawitsu. He moved so as to catch it in his mouth, and then twitched a little as the odd fungus went through his system. Suddenly, the mimicker went pale, a sight that even got his opponent concerned.

"Uh... Dawitsu, are you okay?" Patricia asked, and slowly flew towards the copycat, before his complexion slowly restored itself.

Dawitsu smirked to himself, "Sucker!"

At that point, something inside Dawitsu seemed to explode, causing him to unleash a mighty wave of massive, fire based bullets, catching both Marisa and Patricia off guard, causing both of them to move out of the way instinctively. However, the attack was only one wave's worth, causing Dawitsu to shout, "Hey, throw me another one!"

Marisa grinned, throwing a blue mushroom while Patricia backed away in preparation. Dawitsu suddenly ascended, as if jumping in mid-air to catch a treat, almost like a flying dog. Twitching a little again, this time Dawitsu opened his mouth, spewing out a plume of smaller, slow-moving fire bullets.

Patricia decided that whatever damage Dawitsu did to his own body was his own concern, and focused her fire-power on Marisa, who was moving around a whole lot less than her youkai ally.

Naturally, Marisa responded to this by adding a few lasers to the mix, placing both Dawitsu and Patricia in a confined area, while she threw a third type of mushroom to Dawitsu, this time coloured green, with a beige stem. Dawitsu faithfully ate the mushroom, and crunched into himself, before unleashing a set of blue bullets upwards, away from anyone at all.

Patricia cocked her head in confusion as to what that actually achieved, and the answer quickly came to her as the blue bullets rained down upon the area, some exploding part-way through the fall and spreading even more, smaller bullets as a result. Patricia zipped through the bullets, her path of dodging ending bringing her, by sheer coincidence, right next to the mimicker.

Dawitsu gulped, and weakly said, "About you being a sucker..."

Patricia wasn't in the mood for Dawitsu's rambling, and answered him with a clean blow to the head with her Gohei. She followed up with a few more strikes, before Dawitsu grabbed the weapon, twisted the poor girl's arm, and held her against himself.

Dawitsu grinned, and said, "Hey, Marisa, chuck us an orange one, would ya?"

"Hey, don't hurt Patricia, will ya?" Marisa asked with concern, but regardless, threw him an orange mushroom.

Dawitsu caught the mushroom without releasing Patricia, and began his pre-attack twitching, "...well... Patricia... the pressure's on... how are you gonna get out of this?"

Patricia struggled under the mimicker's grasp, and tried her best to move, but the best she could manage was moving her elbows a little- however, given how low they were on the rather tall youkai, this led her to perform what is possibly the cruellest thing one could do to a man- she elbowed him in the crotch, causing him to release her, grasping his nether-regions as he declared a list of expletives in order of least offensive to most.

In the middle of his tirade, he suddenly remembered the mushroom he had just eaten, "Well, that's fan-fu..."

Dawitsu proceeded to explode, releasing another wave of fire bullets before entering his stunned state once again.

Marisa stopped firing her lasers, and said, "Jeez, he gets knocked out fairly easy. What a pansy. Well, I was gonna perform... uh..." Marisa got out one of Dawitsu's 'brand-new' cards, and read from it slowly, "Magic and Speed Sign: Stardust Speedway's Magical Reverie, but I guess I can't do that while he's sleeping in the air like that. Okay, I'll just perform the 'hard' version of the standard! Black Magic: Event Horizon!"

Patricia focused on Marisa as she threw out a set of ten hakkeros, and somehow, caused them to take on a very ordered, very well thought-out flight pattern. They orbited her, Patricia having to go towards Marisa in order to not get hit by the hakkeros themselves. Naturally, once they began to fire, things only went downhill for the shrine maiden.

They spiralled in towards Marisa, forming a neat spiral of stationary bullets as they drew both themselves and Patricia towards the witch, before spiralling back outwards as Marisa fired a not-so-dense, random spray of stars herself. Patricia was not finding the attack so difficult until the hakkeros began to fire again, this time filling anywhere outside of the spiral with an utterly unavoidable stream of bullets while causing the spiral of still stars to begin moving outwards, forcing Patricia to fly around Marisa, her aim being nigh impossible to keep on her 'Aunty'.

"Hey, Aunty Marisa, you work way better on your own, this is incredible!" Patricia remarked as she slipped through a line of stars.

"Heh, thanks." Marisa replied, "In truth, I don't have enough cards that you haven't already seen, I'm grateful for that loser's help..."

"Just what is up with you two anyway? Dawitsu treats you like an old friend..." Patricia continued to casually talk with her 'Aunty' while she prepared for dodging a repetition of the spiral formation phase of the attack.

"...well, I did help him get some mimicry info from the Underground. Even took a couple of those midgets he likes using so much." Marisa smiled to herself, "...oh, those were the days... hey, why haven't you bombed for a while?"

Patricia folded her arms, her pride suddenly getting to her, "Ha! Because these attacks are too easy. That homing bullet caught me off guard, but when you're not cheap, I'm invincible!"

Marisa chuckled to herself, "Wow, you really are like Reimu. Okay, I'm done..." Marisa said as she stopped her spell, and called out to Dawitsu, who was still floating as if he were impaled on some kind of invisible meat-hook, "...hey, hokey youkey, it's your turn..."

Dawitsu instantly acted as if he was awake, and flew so he was beside Marisa, "AH! So it is. Ah, Marisa, your beautiful voice is enough to get me up from anything..."

"Whatever. Were you even knocked out, or were you just being lazy while I did all the work?" Marisa asked in a dry tone.

"...maybe?" Dawitsu playfully replied.

Marisa folded her arms, before stumbling a little on her broom, causing her to re-establish her grip properly, "Bitch."

"Ahem, I'm a man. Bastard would be more applicable." Dawitsu said with a smile, winking at Marisa.

"I know what I said, bitch." Marisa insisted.

Patricia sighed, "You two don't work together particularly well, do you?"

Dawitsu suddenly smoked a 'cigarette' from his disguise kit, and took the form of himself, albeit now with a rather nice, Arabic-style purple long-coat and a golden hat replacing his tokin. He whispered something into Marisa's ear, and she nodded, and once they got their roles straight, Marisa grinned to herself.

"Oh, so we don't work well together, eh?" Marisa asked Patricia, "Dawitsu, start your thing!"

"Roger! Combination Sign: Komodo Joe's Witchy Replacement!" Dawitsu called out, and grabbed Marisa, who changed her grip on her broom so as to be holding it like a sword, her weight still somehow being supported.

Dawitsu looked at Patricia, and then at Marisa, and proceeded to flick her with the full strength of his arm, causing her to spin radically like a flying spinning top. She was slowly heading towards Patricia, releasing stars from herself at random. This itself was easy to dodge, however Dawitsu had his own addition to the attack- scimitars. Taking out two of the brutal-looking swords from the magical area known as hammer-space, the mimicker began to throw the swords towards Patricia, casting doubt on whether or not he actually intended to hurt her or not.

To make things worse, it seemed that the swords were self-regenerating, as he kept up a constant barrage of the arced-trajectory blades, with Patricia only able to dodge erratically in order to avoid the more immediate threat of the magical whirlwind that was Marisa.

She had to admit, this attack was lethal... Marisa had mentioned that bombing was useless in actually ending an attack, so that option seemed mostly pointless as an attack, however, given that there were very pointy blades involved in this attack, it seemed logical that she bomb, if only as a defence.

"Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal Spread!" Patricia declared, causing a set of Fantasy orbs to surround her and explode, making Marisa back away a little in her pursuit and breaking any swords in her current vicinity.

Marisa eventually got dizzy, and stopped her spinning in order to vomit, causing Dawitsu to throw a temper tantrum, "Oh, _come on_! Marisa, we actually had her! Spinning isn't that hard! I've had to mimic Zant, for God's sake!"

"Yeah, but I ain't some over-powered monster, I'm a human who happens to not be as good at spinning as I used to be..." Marisa muttered.

Dawitsu growled, and threw a massive set of smaller knives during his brief time as a solo attacker, however, unlike Marisa, Patricia quite easily dealt with him, as between the time Marisa had stopped spinning and he had stopped talking, she had sneaked behind him, and his barrage, allowing her to bash him on the head with her Gohei.

The mimicker suddenly gained a deep, vaguely evil-sounding voice, and said, "Gah!" before gaining a purple aura, and backing away from Patricia at an unnaturally fast speed, reuniting with Marisa in his regular clothing.

"Okay, I'll let you do an attack that won't get you dizzy." Dawitsu said to Marisa in his regular voice, helping her regain balance on her broom.

Marisa was obviously still rather nauseous, but declared a spell-card anyway, "...ugh... Satellite of Love: Non-directional Laser and a Space Program!"

With that, the witch released ten more hakkeros, however, this time the set stayed close to her, orbiting her slowly, five clockwise and five anti-clockwise, slowly releasing lasers in those same halves. Patricia was forced to move, first with the clockwise set, and then, when they deactivated, with the anti-clockwise set. In addition, Marisa filled the area with a great rainbow of multi-coloured stars, making Patricia wonder what on earth Dawitsu could possibly add to the mix.

Dawitsu seemed to be biding his time, and eventually, decided to use his cigarette case to transform into what looked like an astronaut. He spoke in a decidedly Russian-sounding accent, and yelled, "This is Captain Vladimir of Volk to Mother. Please respond! Enemy located, sending co-ordinates..."

Patricia had fallen comfortably into her routine of dodging the lasers and taking into account the various stars, and so, when a great, red tracking laser pointed upon her from the sky, she didn't exactly deal with the aftermath well.

She instinctively activated a 'Duplex Barrier' as the tracking laser became a very much dangerous laser, one large enough to rival the master spark in size, but not intensity. That being said, it still managed to leave a great scorching crater in the ground where Patricia's Duplex Barrier hadn't blocked it.

This was not good... Patricia was finding it easy enough to hit Marisa, but a complication like Dawitsu was just going to waste bombs. Fortunately, Dawitsu seemed to have switched his tactic to simply ordering lasers to fire from the sky randomly rather than upon her, which, while annoying, was far less hazardous than the initial laser... looking at the mimicker, who's face was currently covered by his latest outfit, she wondered if he had become concerned for her and started to hold back...

"Hey, Dawitsu, you can try, you know." Patricia called out, keeping up a stream of ofuda flying towards Marisa.

Dawitsu seemingly ignored her, however, he clearly got the memo, as shortly after, he shouted, "Mother! Please respond!"

The result was yet another targeting laser appearing. This time Patricia moved quickly, weaving through the sea of stars as best as she could while still avoiding the non-directional lasers, trying to get as far away from the light column of death from above.

Marisa smiled at Patricia with a touch of respect, "Heh, I see you're now aware of how much we're holding back. Just remember, you're not quite Reimu yet."

"I don't intend to be Reimu." Patricia replied with an equally respectful smile, "Just a good incident solver."

"That's my girl!" Marisa shouted as the next massive laser from space crashed down, completely missing the girl, "Okay, Dawitsu, get out of that stupid suit and do your last co-operative attack!"

Dawitsu covered himself in smoke, and returned to normal, pulling out a spell-card, "Roger that! Thunder and Light Sign: Reflux's Magical Assistant!"

Marisa flew backwards, so that she was behind Dawitsu. The mimicker himself pulled out a jewelled sceptre, and rose it to the sky, causing thunderbolts to come crashing down from the sky, bombarding the ground below them. In addition, he released strange yellow orbs from the sceptre itself, and Patricia sighed, knowing this unpredictable, yet simple attack was not even close to the full deal.

Marisa winked, and performed her half of the attack, and circled around the metaphorical battlefield, placing various stationary hakkeros around in the air. After giving off an indicating set of lines, the octagonal prisms' next action was to create a constant grid of lasers which trapped Patricia into one area.

Patricia sighed, knowing there was absolutely nowhere to go, and so micro-dodged the yellow orbs, hoping that a thunderbolt didn't strike where she was. She considered this attack a little unfair, if only because of the lightning strikes, which had no rhyme, reason, or predictability to them. They didn't even give away where they'd hit next, which made them a constant worry for the micro-dodging shrine maiden.

Despite this continual worry, she decided to just keep throwing her ofuda at Dawitsu, feeling fairly confident in vanquishing the attack, as she knew Dawitsu probably wouldn't allow for the cheaper half of his attack actually hit her. While he was holding the strange sceptre in his hand with some kind of attempt at an intimidating pose, he was pretty much the cuddly bear of the Youkai world- although, just like a bear, Patricia dreaded to think what it was like to get on someone like Dawitsu's bad side.

Finally, the youkai got tired of constantly taking hits from the curse-lined pieces of paper Patricia mercilessly fired at him, clearly not having any of his restraint.

However, he didn't seem particularly bothered by this, and instead called to Marisa, "Okay, Marisa, now it's your final co-operative spell-card!"

Marisa pulled out the spell-card in question, and awkwardly read out, "Human-Youkai Love: Criss Cross Spark!"

The witch already knew the implication of the name, and flew towards Dawitsu, high-fiving the man as they assumed positions that made it so that Marisa was in front of Patricia, while Dawitsu was to her left.

Marisa pulled out a hakkero, while Dawitsu summoned some kind of holographic replica, and after a brief period of charging, Patricia dashed towards a 'corner' of the battlefield as the two made a great big 'plus' sign out of rainbow-coloured, love-based destructive force. In addition to this extremely restrictive attack, the two also released spirals of stars, and once their Master Sparks ceased, they quickly moved so that they were forty-five degrees from their position relative the centre of the 'battlefield'.

Patricia gulped, and dashed to the centre-right of the area as they unleashed an 'X' shaped pair of lethal lasers of loveliness. The stars released afterwards were not actually much of a problem, however, they made getting to the next safe spot free from the massive crossing pairs of sparks all the more troublesome.

These infernal stars ended up forcing Patricia into the centre, the very last place she wanted to be. Dawitsu and Marisa looked at each other, as if silently debating whether or not they should actually fire, before deciding that yes, she could handle it.

However, Patricia couldn't, and simply bombed, using another Duplex Barrier to shield herself, however, it seemed to absorb so much damage that one of the layers shattered, releasing an unexpected burst of energy that caught both Marisa and Dawitsu off-guard.

Deciding that enough was enough, the witch and youkai yielded and regrouped in front of Patricia, who was gasping in shock at the fact her barrier that generally led to pure invincibility actually got broken by something.

Marisa smirked, "Well, Patty, I think we can safely say this victory doesn't count, but I look forward to the day when you genuinely beat me in battle!"

"And I only wish to drink tea with you once the battle is over!" Dawitsu declared, "Just like I did with Reimu in the good old days!"

Patricia sighed to herself, "...I... I would say that there's two of you, and that's unfair, but... but I think I'd have trouble against any one of you..."

Dawitsu smiled to himself, before offering a little encouragement, "Aw, don't beat yourself up, you're only starting out! In fact, for the last pair of attacks, you get to attack us individually! Does that seem fair? By the way, I'm going first."

"You mean we're still continuing this..." Patricia began to say, but was cut off by Dawitsu declaring his final spell-card as Marisa got well out of the way.

"Mimicry Finale: Miracle Fassad's Final Fury!" Dawitsu called out.

Patricia re-engaged her battle mode as Dawitsu fired several multi-coloured lasers at a rapid-fire rate, filling the sky with light and destroying pretty much any area of the Forest of Magic not already charred by the various massive lasers used in the battle. He then swerved to the side, throwing several bombs into the air, replacing the pretty light in the sky with monochromatic, red explosions and plenty of shrapnel for Patricia to avoid.

Patricia was actually surprised at how easy this was for a final attack, and kept firing persuasion needles and ofuda at the mimicker, however after about thirty seconds of sustained abuse, Dawitsu stepped up his game.

"This is how extra bosses roll! Their final card starts off easy, and then becomes merciless!" Dawitsu explained in as over-the-top a manner as possible, "I hope you're ready... PK... STARSTORM!"

Dawitsu pointed his hand forwards, and suddenly, from the sky rained down various star-shaped lumps of energy, leaving a trail of slow-moving bullets in their wake, bombarding the forest and making Patricia re-evaluate how much of a threat this guy was, avoiding the initial barrage with ease but having trouble with the finicky after-trail of bullets that lingered afterwards.

However, even that wasn't the end of it. As Patricia tried her hardest to weave through the dense fog of stellar energy, Dawitsu yelled, "PK THUNDER!"

This caused thunderbolts to fall from the sky once again, this time with a telegraphed pre-image of where the bolt would strike, effectively meaning Dawitsu had no reason to hold back. Whenever a pre-image appeared on her, Patricia had to move swiftly, which the various orbs left by the 'starstorm' made exceedingly difficult to do.

Dawitsu certainly wasn't letting her win easily, and although he was getting hit by ofuda, he was unmoving, rather summoning alternate attacks based on stars and thunder continuously, occasionally throwing in lasers and bombs for flavour. Then Patricia got struck with a flash of memory- Dawitsu's previous battle had him using 'PK' attacks, whatever they were, and last time, all that was required to make it malfunction was a distraction.

Patricia grinned, and shouted, "Hey, mimicker, eat this!"

Dawitsu had just declared 'PK Thunder' when he turned to face Patricia, and to his surprise, saw she had just thrown her Gohei as a physical projectile. It bounced off his face, successfully throwing off his concentration and causing his lightning to backfire, striking himself four consecutive times, each bolt making him more and more charred.

By the time he was hit the fourth time, he stopped firing bullets, and fell to the floor like a downed aircraft. At this, Marisa flew back into the scene.

"Heh heh, not too shabby, he's probably gonna feel that for months!" Marisa sarcastically remarked.

"I... didn't mean for that to happen." Patricia mumbled, "Wow, Reimu's gonna kill me for losing my Gohei like that..."

Marisa winked at Patricia, and got out her personal mini-hakkero, "Oh, by the way, he's not the only one with a flashy finale..."

Patricia sighed to herself, and move out of the way as Marisa declared her final attack, "Magicannon: Final Spark!"

As expected from any phrase consisting of one word followed by 'spark' uttered by Marisa, the result of the declaration was none other than a huge laser beam, one that was fairly easy to predict despite its monstrous size. However, what Patricia didn't expect was that the laser was actually able to be moved by the witch, who wasted no time slowly rotating the trajectory towards Patricia while she attempted to escape, weaving through the various stars that were released as a by-product of the massive laser.

Patricia sighed, knowing that although this was spectacular, there really was no peril... she was going to win, no matter what, both sides had clearly shown that they were still afraid of hurting her, and so, really, even the adrenaline rush of the whole event seemed to die a little. Perhaps it was her current thoughts that caused something totally unexpected to happen- Patricia got pelted by not one, not two, but about ten separate star-shaped bullets, the energy of the impact shocking her and knocking her out from the first bullet's hit, the rest simply adding insult to injury. Patricia fell unconscious, and, just like Dawitsu before her, careened out of the sky.

As soon as Marisa noticed, her eyes widened with surprise, and she stopped her attack, and began to zoom downwards on her broom, trying her best to beat gravity at its own game, however, it was proving near impossible...

Patricia neared the floor at an ever-increasing rate, and Marisa quietly muttered, "No... no... I'm sorry, Patty... I'm sorry... I... can't..."

However someone below both of them swooped through the sky and took Patricia along with them, stopping her fall and saving her life... Marisa overshot the area, and took a while to stabilise and see who it was who had plucked her from near-certain death.

It was a fellow magician, riding a broomstick exactly like Marisa- Jean floated in front of Marisa, and said, "...I was worried that this might happen. Don't you ever think that something dangerous could happen when you battle this frequently?"

Marisa let loose a massive sigh of relief, "Jean! Oh... thank God you showed up when you did, I... I thought I'd lost her..." Marisa suddenly became slightly defensive, and mumbled, "And... well, you know, if Reimu found out, she genuinely would have killed me, and I don't wanna return all my books just yet..."

Jean smiled to himself, "Ah, you never change... let's go home and let her rest in the study..."

The two magicians slowly flew back down to the ground, and took the unconscious Patricia into Marisa's house, where Jean gently laid the young girl down on his usual sleeping surface, the study couch.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the floor of the Forest of Magic, there lay a Youkai who's blue cloak had been burnt to a fine, crisp black. He slowly opened his eyes, and weakly brought himself up from the ground, mumbling to himself, "Why... the hell... didn't anyone care about me?"

_The mimicker was too weak to fly, and so decided to walk around like a weakling until he could return to his flying mansion. It was at moments like this where he wished he had been less flashy with his choice of accommodation..._

_...not only that, but when he got back, Ran was most certainly going to have a problem with him inconsiderately going out and abandoning his 'family' yet again for no other reason than a play-fight with a kid exactly twenty-six times younger than him..._

Author's Notes: This chapter is exactly why danmaku doesn't generally translate well into prose, yet I decided to do it anyway. Why? Because it shows the sheer framework story that the Touhou games alone have. Flashy stuff is not always stuff of substance...

...and this is why Touhou is the way it is. ZUN left frameworks, frameworks with potential, and the fan community, oh the fan community, boy, do they build upon them. Truly, Touhou is a show of what a collective consciousness could actually behave like...

...that is, freakin' weird, heh heh.


	12. 12: All's well that ends with a party

**Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor**

**Chapter 12- All's well that ends with a party**

_Patricia's Subconscious, an unknown time, presumably while she was unconscious_

Patricia Hakurei had briefly disappeared from the real world, and during such time, seemed to have been transported to an entirely different one, one which seemed mostly like a giant version of the Hakurei Shrine interior, albeit with trees and other such plant-life growing within it.

Naturally, the shrine maiden was very aware of her situation- she was undoubtedly dreaming. However, she was having trouble remembering how exactly she ended up asleep... as far as she could remember, the time was not the typical time associated with dormancy for anyone except for the strange, nocturnal youkai of the forest.

Walking through the overgrown, wooden building, she decided that she may as well have fun with whatever strange trip she was having, and so, began to look for people within her dream-scape to talk to.

At the far end of the massive room she was currently in was an entrance to a room which was labelled 'Memory Bank'. Patricia couldn't help but groan at the incredibly obvious signposting, but figured that this was probably the best place to go if she wanted to get her bearings on how on earth she ended up here.

Walking to the doorway of the 'Memory Bank', she soon came to a dead end upon entering the doorway, and so, turned around and re-entered the central room, only to find the plant-infested wooden room had been replaced with a bizarre sort of library, not too dissimilar to the one she had stolen from on behalf of Marisa.

"This is... strange." Patricia somewhat obviously pointed out, "Okay... uh... dream logic... subconscious... person... where are you? Can you help me find some relevant memories? Come on, this is my dream, someone should show up around now..."

Suddenly, as if appearing on request, a gap opened in the floor in front of Patricia, and a surprisingly kind-looking rendition of Yukari Yakumo floated upwards and out of the void. She was sporting a hideously cheerful smile on her face, one which didn't suit her mature-looking face in the slightest.

"Hello, Patricia! I'm your Memory's embodiment!" the image said to Patricia in a sickeningly sweet voice, "What seems to be the problem?"

Patricia smirked to herself, "I would have doubted your authenticity, saying that you may be the real Yukari entering my dreams, but there's no doubt you're a fake. Jeez, do I really subconsciously view her this way?"

"Well, there are a few corrupted memories which were made while you were an infant... the capturing of the memories were incomplete, so I've only been able to study it a little bit, but I'd say that ultimately, you owe Miss Yakumo a lot!" 'Memory' replied, punctuating her sentence with a gratingly girlish giggle, "Perhaps that's why I'm so smiley?"

Patricia sighed to herself, "I never realised I went insane in my dreams... I must really be gone, this dream's so clear... so, do you know what's going on?"

"Hmm, it would seem that some kind of trauma occurred, because recent memory data, just like data from when you were an infant, is corrupted. Usually the only reason for corruption of memories later on in life is due to trauma..." 'Yukari' explained.

"So... you saying I witnessed something traumatic?" Patricia mused, "...well... I remember figuring out that Uncle Jean and Aunty Marisa had... you know, did the nasty and what have you. But I don't think I'd black out from that..."

"Oh no, silly, I meant a physical trauma!" Memory continued, "You know, getting hurt!"

Patricia stopped and thought to herself, "Hmm... well, the last thing I remember, I was preparing for a fight with Aunty Marisa, and then that Dawitsu loser came in, we started fighting, and... oh, I get it..."

"You do?" Memory asked, and got out a book labelled 'Short Term Memory', "What happened?"

"I think... I think I actually lost a fight!" Patricia said, her voice actually happy with this result, for whatever reason, "Oh yeah! That's it, I told them not to go easy on me, and then, at the end, I got hit! Aunty Marisa beat me!"

"Hmm, you seem overly happy about your physical trauma..." Memory mused in a slightly concerned voice.

"That's because she didn't want to be pitied..." another voice added.

Patricia turned to the voice, and saw an image of Reimu, her default facial expression far closer to the real Reimu's than Memory's to Yukari.

Raising one eyebrow, Patricia asked, "So, who do you represent?"

"I'm your conscience, Patty." Reimu's lookalike answered, "I must say, it was good of you to let go of your pride. By acknowledging you were weaker than your elders, you've learnt something about life..."

"I have?" Patricia said in a quizzical tone, "I swear, I've just been shooting up fairies, evil spirits, and getting into spell-card battles, I don't think I've learnt anything of value..."

"Well, I guess you could say it started when you had to steal that book for Marisa. Although you didn't tell Marisa this, you required that Magician Youkai's help to get out of the library that this memory bank is based upon..." Conscience explained, "Also, your Uncle Jean gave you a hakkero and taught you how to use it, Dawitsu was the one who led you to the entrance to the underground, that Oni woman directed you to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, the Satori in the Palace let you through without even a fight... are you beginning to understand the lesson?"

"Okay, okay, I get it..." Patricia said in a slightly sarcastic tone, "...I guess it's that I still need help from everyone in order to solve an incident, is that it?"

"Not only that, but sometimes in life, things are out of your control..." 'Reimu' said, beginning to sound like some kind of soap-box campaigner, "...and in those times, you have to rely on the goodwill of others. However, just because you had to rely on the goodwill of others doesn't mean that you do not work hard yourself. A combination of both is required to get though life in general..."

"And I guess you want me to have the same goodwill to others in their time of need, right?" Patricia remarked, "This couldn't get any more cheesy, you know..."

"Well, I am your conscience, I would prefer it if you were nice to others..." Conscience replied, "There are... others which would see things... a little differently..."

Patricia didn't even have time to question who these 'others' were before Reimu's lookalike had conjured three images up, one being of a slightly younger-looking Jean, one being of an even younger-looking Marisa, and one being of a more-or-less accurate Dawitsu, albeit a rendition of him after he had recently shaved.

Conscience smiled to herself, "For a balanced view, why not see what these guys have to say for themselves, you might gain something from their input that I can't add... well... actually, I think the third one just sneaked here without my permission, but whatever... "

Patricia decided to question the three figments in narrative order, and so, approached her 'Uncle Jean' first, and asked him the same thing she asked Conscience first, "Okay, what do you represent?"

"Rationality..." the image of Jean replied, "...I will go through things in a logical manner, and tell you the facts."

"Is that so?" Patricia remarked, "You're a lot more sure of yourself than the real Uncle Jean, that's for sure. So, what are 'the facts'?"

"You're weak." Rationality stated, "Far, far weaker than you thought. Ready to solve an incident? HA! Reimu lost her adoptive mother before she was your age, she had to live alone. She was really tough, the real deal. You weren't ready, you just scraped through actually solving the thing... your legs are now burned for the rest of your life. The burns may stop hurting and fade a little, but they'll always be red... good luck finding a boyfriend!"

"Jeez, Rationality's a bit of a jerk, isn't he?" Patricia remarked, "Why the hell is someone as nice as Uncle Jean representing him..."

"Hey, hey, I'm not done!" Rationality interrupted, "But, by almost failing and getting a permanent reminder of that near failure, you will know not to rush into dangerous situations again. Your Uncle Jean was right to fear for your safety. He was the only one that voiced concern when you decided to fight Aunty Marisa, and well, now you're... I dunno, comatose, or something... yeah, you'd think the burns would have taught you a thing or two, but apparently not..."

Patricia swallowed to herself, and shrugged her shoulders, "Well, okay, I take your point. I thought I was invincible, but I wasn't... hmm, Conscience, is it okay if you take Uncle Jean... I mean, Rationality away?"

Conscience nodded, and clicked her fingers, making the figment disappear, "Whatever you wish..."

Moving on to the image of Marisa, Patricia put her hands to her hips and asked, "Okay then. Who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm your Hedonism!" 'Marisa' replied in a voice somehow even more enthusiastic than the original.

"Hedonism?" Patricia asked, "How the hell are figments of my imagination using vocabulary I'm unaware of?"

"Who cares, as long as the explanation's fun, right?" Hedonism replied.

"Huh?" Patricia enunciated, not quite sure what to make of this figment, "I'm not sure where you're going with this..."

"Don't you get it? I'm the fun-loving part of your brain!" Hedonism explained with a great shout, "Oh, wasn't the part where you shot up those Magician Youkai cool? And the part with the little shooting robot-thingy? And fighting an Oni? Oh, fighting an Oni really gives me an adrenaline rush! Ah, and then there was that doorwoman! Oh, wasn't it hilarious seeing her get all mad like that? Oh, and then there was that robot! Wow, he was tough, you almost died, that was the real deal right there, that was true euphoria! Oh, if only every day was like that, huh? I want you to keep solving incidents, because that was so very very fun! Can you please go and solve something again? I'm sure that you can just ask Yukari to make a fake incident if you wanted to... oh, but then again, knowing it's fake ruins the fun... oh, unless you cause an incident yourself and then solve it again..."

Throughout this excessively wordy gushing of emotion, Patricia had been slowly building up to just yelling the words 'Shut up' at the childish version of her beloved 'Aunt', however, she ultimately remained calm, quietly saying to Conscience, "Make her disappear, would you?"

Conscience smirked to herself, "Of course..."

With a click of 'Reimu's' fingers, the mad-with-ecstasy rendition of Marisa disappeared before Patricia's... 'dream-eyes', and so, she folded her arms, moving on to the final apparition in the sequence.

"So, what do you represent? I bet it's something like insanity, knowing you..." Patricia mused.

"Sex-drive, honey." 'Dawitsu' calmly replied, extending a rather limp-wristed arm as some kind of 'gesture' to prove it.

Patricia was naturally a little shocked by this revelation, and turned bright red, "...what... what the hell..."

"Why are you surprised?" Sex Drive asked, "Oh, is it the person I look like? Well, I'm like the only young-looking man you really know. I mean, you are straight, and it'd be kinda weird if your Uncle Jean was Sex Drive, wouldn't it? I mean, we all know Freud was wrong about the whole 'lusting after your parents' thing..."

Patricia began to quiver at the thought of subconsciously having a thing for a youkai, never mind someone as goofy as him, "...um... I don't even know who Freud is... I... um... I need a minute..."

Sex Drive cocked his head, "What's wrong, darling? Do you need a back-rub? I'm very good at back-rubs..."

Patricia shook her head, "...n-no, I'm... I'm... good."

"You seem so troubled..." 'Dawitsu' remarked, "...is something paining you? I'll kiss it better..."

"I... I..." Patricia turned to Conscience in a fit of rage, "OKAY, WHY THE HELL DID YOU MAKE MY SEX DRIVE APPEAR? I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT I FOUND THIS GUY ATTRACTIVE!"

Conscience smiled absent-mindedly, "I didn't summon him, he just appeared. Sexual thoughts occur in dreams, it's pretty much a spontaneous thing. Usually it's a sign you're about to wake up..."

"Yes, that's why I'm here!" Sex Drive suddenly spoke up, "I'm here to help you wake up! Now..." Sex Drive proceeded to turn around, "...what do you think of my ass? It looks nice, doesn't it..."

Patricia stepped back from the clearly uncontrollable impulse, "...I... this... this is just too... okay, I gotta wake up, this is uncomfortable..."

'Dawitsu' suddenly began to act a little more in character, and jumped up and down while clapping gleefully, "Oh goodie, I've managed to use my awkwardness for the sake of good! Maybe if you went to the school Dawitsu was talking about, you'd find some human boys your own age to replace this mediocre image..."

Patricia was beginning to feel nauseous, and she began to wretch. Suddenly, her mouth filled up, and her cheeks puffed out, and then, as she turned away from her Conscience, Sex Drive, and long since forgotten-about Memory, she threw up, before blacking out in the dream world...

_Marisa's House, the Forest of Magic, around ten-thirty ante-meridian_

Patricia finally woke up in the real world, her first stimuli being the sound of Jean and Marisa arguing with each other frantically, her vision too blurry to pick up anything significant in the sight department.

"Look, she's been unconscious for an hour, now, I think we should tell Reimu!" Jean's voice shouted to Marisa.

"But... but we can't! She'll just get mad, and I don't want the grief! Look, she's fine, we've just got to wait!" Marisa replied with equal volume.

"Your 'wake-up potion' did nothing, so what makes you so confident?" Jean asked, "If Reimu finds this out for herself, I can assure you that she'd give us far more grief! And that's besides the point, Patricia could be seriously injured!"

Patricia's vision gradually sharpened, and the resulting image her brain had processed had determined she was in Marisa's study.

"...stop... shouting... Uncle Jean..." Patricia mumbled to the pair of human magicians, turning her head to face the noise.

"Patricia, you're alright!" Jean said in a highly relieved voice, "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay! Do you need anything? Are you hungry?"

"I'm... I'm... fine..." Patricia murmured, "I... feel a bit sick, actually."

"Oh..." Marisa laughed to herself nervously, "...that might be the wake-up potion I gave you. I gave it to you ages ago, though, I wonder why it's only taking effect now..."

Patricia sighed... it was probably whatever was in that 'potion' which caused her to have such bizarre dreams. Pushing herself so she could sit up, she smiled at Marisa, "Well... I guess I lost, huh?"

"Yup!" Marisa bragged, "You're pretty good, but a long way off from beating your Aunty Marisa in a straight match!"

Jean face-palmed, "...to think that Patricia could have died..."

"Lighten up, will you, Jean?" Marisa mocked, "You're acting like Patricia wasn't gonna get up! Come on, she survived that crazy robot, there's no way that our little game was gonna end in tragedy!"

"I'll remind you it was _my _doubts that made sure she was okay..." Jean pointed out.

"Huh?" Patricia asked, "What do you mean, Uncle Jean?"

"I caught you as you fell... Marisa wasn't going to get there in time." Jean explained, "I may be slow, but I was in the right place at the right time..."

"Oh..." Patricia looked to Jean, and saw that he was just as rational as the version she had seen in her dreams, only far kinder...

Getting up off the sofa, she hugged the slightly-younger-than-middle-aged man, and said, "Thank you, Uncle Jean... I... I need to say thank you to everyone that's helped me..."

Jean was unprepared for the hug, so just stood there, not really sure what the sudden affectionate streak in Patricia was owing to, "...uh... it's not a problem, Patricia, I would do everything I could to keep you from harm..."

Marisa rolled her eyes, "Yeah, anything but keep her from fighting me. You're a big old wimp, you know that..."

However, Marisa's speech was cut short by Patricia switching hug victim, and the shrine maiden proceeded to say in hug, "...thanks for not going easy on me in the end... I was talking like a big-shot when I shouldn't have... sorry, Aunty Marisa..."

Marisa fidgeted a little, "Uh... okay, while it's nice that you're not being all sarcastic like Reimu is, you might wanna cut down on the hugging... did I accidentally slip in some Psilocybin mushrooms into the potion, I wonder..."

Patricia let go, and said, "...sorry... wow, I haven't hugged you in a while, Aunty Marisa..."

Marisa smirked to herself, "I guess that I'm a 'look, but don't touch' kinda gal. So... uh... you won't be telling Reimu you almost died, will ya?"

Patricia folded her arms, "Hey, that's a large burden, I can't keep up lies as well as you can!"

"Me? Lie?" Marisa said, shocked at the 'accusation', "I never lie!"

However, before either Patricia or Jean could call Marisa out on the _very _false nature of this statement, a knock was heard on the door.

Patricia looked at the adults, who were both wondering who could be visiting at such a time, and they clearly had both come to the conclusion it was Reimu, judging by the worried expressions that their faces switched to after a brief pause.

Knowing they were probably too afraid to open the door, Patricia rolled her eyes and volunteered herself, "...fine, I'll get it..."

Walking out of the study and towards the door, Patricia opened the door, however, found no-one at head-level to open the door to. Sighing to herself, she mumbled, "Must have been a prank call..."

However, a voice from below her shouted, "Hey, down here!"

Patricia halted mid-closure of the door, and looked down to see a miniature rendition of someone she didn't exactly want to see at the moment... Dawitsu.

Blushing, she mumbled, "...uh... hi... what brings you here?"

"Well, I've been told by the original that I've got to give invitations for a party he's throwing." the dwarf answered, "I also had to give one to the residents of the Hakurei Shrine, including Reimu, who had just got up..." the dwarf turned around, showing his posterior, complete with several needles stuck there, "...she's... not a morning person, and said some nasty things about the original, something about kidnapping or something. Anyway, she's looking for ya, you know..."

"Oh crap, that isn't good..." Patricia mused, trying her best not to react to the humorous injuries sustained by the miniature clone, "...so... when's the party?"

"Tonight, any time that's night will do, that's what the original said." the Chibi said, "So, I guess I should give you guys three invitations? Reimu ripped hers up..."

"Um..." Patricia didn't exactly want to go to the Dawitsu Mansion given the... awkward imagery she had recently seen of the man, but figured that it would be a load of fun regardless, and so, she took three invitations from the tiny man, saying, "Thanks a lot!" before slamming the door in the poor clone's face.

Reading one of the invitations over, she quoted, "The master of the Dawitsu Mansion cordially invites you to a most fabulous party... hmm, yes, only he would say something like 'fabulous'..."

Walking back into the study, Patricia began to say, "Hey, Aunty Marisa and Uncle Jean, there's an invitation for..." before the former interrupted her.

"WE'RE SCREWED! SHE'S LOOKING FOR YOU!" Marisa yelled, "What do we do?"

"I was gonna go home and tell her the truth anyway..." Patricia replied, "...sorry to burst your bubble, but you can't keep secrets forever..."

Jean was quite impressed with how smart Patricia was for her age, and mused, "Funny how a thirteen year-old knows that more than a thirty-six year-old..."

"...well... well... I'm not going to that party, I don't want to meet Reimu there..." Marisa said in a clearly frightened voice.

"I don't honestly think she wants to go if she ripped up her invitation..." Patricia lied, "...anyway, I'm gonna go home and hope that she comes back soon..."

Jean smiled to himself, "...well, if you are going, I'll go to the mimicker's party too, Patricia. We'll all go together, how about that?"

Patricia smirked to herself, turning to Marisa, "Well, well... I guess it's gonna be suspicious that you didn't show up... I wonder, if Reimu _does _go to this party, she might be wondering why you'd turn down such an event..."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Marisa conceded, "Honestly, why'd you have to be such a little smart-ass? Didn't getting your butt kicked teach you anything?"

Patricia shuddered, "...more than I'd like to know..."

_The Dawitsu Mansion, a little earlier_

Dawitsu, who had just gotten home and was in the middle of hand-writing a set of invitations for a certain party at the foyer table, was trying his best to rebuff any questions from Ran, who was, as predicted, not best pleased with his behaviour.

"You promised you'd spend more time with Chen and I..." Ran ranted, standing over the mimicker with her hands on her hips.

"Look, I'm organising a party, so we'll have some fun together..." Dawitsu muttered.

"But you ended up staying up as usual, and then got up early just to get yourself hurt playing with that shrine maiden..." Ran nagged.

"Look, I don't need this..." Dawitsu dismissively replied, before finding out the hard way that this was _not _the correct response, as Ran proceeded to pick him up by his charred cloak, and throw him to the floor.

"LISTEN to me!" Ran yelled, "Would it hurt you to just stop running around? I was happy to settle down when we got married, so why aren't you?"

"You know, there's nothing stopping you coming along to the fights I get into..." Dawitsu replied, "In fact, I think we'd make a good battle couple..."

Ran walked so she was standing over the mimicker, dwarfing him completely and giving him a particularly frightening glare, "...yet you still went off and decided to have fun with that human magician, not even telling me..."

"Look, the only reason I didn't tell you is because you'd react like..." Dawitsu began to say, before Ran stamped on one of his feet, causing him to yell, "OWWWW!" before he rather suddenly composed himself, "...oh my... heh heh... this is starting to turn out like our wedding night all over again..."

Ran's expression turned from an angry one to one with a strangely twisted form of glee, "...oh... I'm even standing over you..."

Dawitsu giggled, and stood up, releasing a set of Chibi clones from himself, "...well, I think I'll let those guys finish off the job..." Dawitsu stopped talking, and pointed to his genetic doubles, "You heard me, get writing and delivering, move, move, move!"

After that, Dawitsu turned back to Ran with a grin, "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, you owe me one, so I think..." Ran began to say, but Dawitsu had the fourth wall to worry about.

"Ran, please think of the censors, this is only a T-rated fanfiction!" Dawitsu said as his clones got to work on writing invitations as others rushed out of the house carrying invitations, "...anyway, I think I'm in the mood for your kinda stuff this time around..."

Ran giggled, and took hold of Dawitsu the same way a groom carries a bride, and the two nuzzled their noses, the former saying, "...Chen's fast asleep, so we have the foyer all to ourselves..."

"Lucky us..." Dawitsu mused, "...as long as the Chibis don't mind watching..."

However, as the two initialised whatever mating rituals a tengu lookalike and a kitsune could possibly be obligated to perform, a certain sound interrupted their love-making... the ring of the doorbell.

"Damn it, cock-blocked by the plot!" Dawitsu called, his shirt fully unbuttoned and his hair a veritable mess.

The mimicker headed for the door while the kitsune put what clothes she had removed back on, calling out to the man, "Remember you owe me!"

"Of course!" Dawitsu called back as he headed for the door. Opening it, he revealed a less-than-happy-looking Reimu.

"Okay, where the hell is Patricia? You know something about this, don't you?" Reimu yelled, "It's a good thing your stupid clone came in to invite me to your stupid party, so I could deal with you here and now!"

"Actually, I was about to have sex, can the fighting wait..." Dawitsu calmly and somewhat shamelessly proclaimed.

Reimu glared at Dawitsu, seeming to calm down for a moment, before exploding, "I KNEW IT! YOU'RE A LOLICON!"

Ran quickly got up, adjusting her bra underneath her dress as she walked to the doorway, and hurriedly said, "...it isn't like that, it was with me! We're married, for pity's sake, why would he..."

"AND IT'S A THREESOME?" Reimu yelled, her anger levels clearly through the roof.

"Jesus, calm down, will you?" Dawitsu said, "It's not the first time Patricia's gone out before you've woken up. However, I do know something about her location. If you're willing to stop shouting and drink some tea, maybe I'll tell you..."

Reimu groaned, "...sorry, I thought you'd kidnapped her... Patricia's all trusting of you, and then you have an invitation for some kind of creepy party... and... I mean, you're a teacher, and..."

Ran laughed a little haughtily, "You don't know what it's like to be a real woman, so you wouldn't know that he'd never cheat on me, not with your successor, not with anyone!"

Dawitsu pinched his nose, "...can we please just drop this whole thing and drink some tea, please..."

Thirty minutes and one tea-drinking session later, Dawitsu finally decided to stop withholding information, "Okay, Reimu, you feeling better?"

Reimu sat back on the Dawitsu Mansion's foyer sofa, her expression now _incredibly_ cheerful, "Ah... it feels like heaven... what's in this tea?"

"Amineptine..." Dawitsu blurted out, "...I mean... just strawberry and sugar, your usual..."

Ran's eyes widened, "...so that's why you insisted on making the tea yourself..."

"Oh... oh, I feel all funny..." Reimu said with a calm, zen-like grin, "...so... uh... Patricia... she's fine, right?"

"Well, Patricia knocked on my door this morning asking about the ultimate cause of the incident, and I told her about Marisa's accidental activation of the Gizoid." Dawitsu explained, "And then she went to her house..."

"So... so she's with Marisa and Jean... that's good, I trust them..." Reimu half-whispered.

"Um... how much Amineptine did you put in her tea?" Ran asked, "She'd never be this nice about Marisa normally..."

"I gave her enough." Dawitsu replied, "Anyway, that's not the full story. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go out and be Patricia's extra boss, but she'd already picked Marisa. Then I fought Patricia together with Marisa, and..."

"Ha! You and Marisa..." Reimu began to giggle to herself, "...and I bet she kicked your sorry butts, right?"

Dawitsu laughed to himself nervously, hoping that he _had _given Reimu enough Amineptine, "...well... from what I saw, she... uh... lost on the last spell-card..."

"Huh?" Reimu suddenly acted in a more aware, normal manner, her slouched posture straightening.

"Don't worry! She's fine, just a bit... unconscious, that's all! I'm sure one of my clones will visit Marisa's house and find that she's totally fine..." Dawitsu said in a defensive tone, doing his best to simply keep Reimu from throttling him.

And, just as Dawitsu said this, a certain dwarf clone entered the house, and said, "Hey, I visited Marisa's house, and found Patricia! She's totally fine!"

Dawitsu smiled, and said, "See, what did I tell you?"

Reimu sat back again, and said, "Oh... that's good... as long as she's safe... hey... hey, Dawitsu, can you give me some more tea?"

Ran sighed to herself, "...well, why should we refuse?"

"She... is a guest, after all..." Dawitsu mused, and then clicked to bring the Chibi who had been the bearer of good news to him, whispering, "...okay, make Reimu a strawberry tea, three sugars and plenty of Amineptine..."

"Yes, sir!" the clone replied, and zipped into the kitchen.

"Hmm... well, with Reimu here, I guess practically all of Gensokyo's coming to this post-incident party..." Dawitsu mused, "...it's gonna a be a big party, which all our friends are invited to..."

Reimu snickered to herself, "You have friends? Don't make me laugh!"

Ran rolled her eyes, "...let's just hope the drugs don't wear off any time soon..."

_The Dawitsu Mansion, several hours later, presumably at a time the master considers 'night'_

The night fell upon Gensokyo like a black cloak, quickly covering the whole area in darkness... however, one part of it, a part which continuously generated both heat and light, was the Dawitsu Mansion, the rocket engines that allowed it to stay afloat blazing as always.

While Dawitsu had sent an invitation to almost everyone in Gensokyo, very few people within the large cast of characters actually knew of the mimicker's existence, and so, in addition to Dawitsu, Ran, Chen, and the still rather drugged Reimu, only a select few people had arrived so far, these select few being Yutaka Hadekawa, Patchouli Knowledge, Sakuya Izayoi, Rinnosuke Morichika, Suika Ibuki, Sanae Kochiya, and... for some reason, Mamizou Futatsuiwa.

Reimu was finding the poor turn-out naturally rather hilarious, "HA! I told you you had no friends!"

Dawitsu was trying his best to ignore the now-irritating shrine maiden, and instead, decided to hold his current conversation with Mamizou, "...so, what techniques do you use to shape-shift? I'm curious, because at the moment, I need a machine..."

Mamizou seemed to be the only one in the party smoking, and so she drew attention as she demonstrated by covering herself in the stuff, transforming into an image of Nue with ease, "Just like that. What's the matter, can't observe through all that smoke?"

Dawitsu coughed a little, "...yeah, it's kinda difficult..."

Reimu was beginning to get a little frustrated, her drug-influenced mind making her decide that the best remedy to this was throw a miniature tantrum, "Hey, idiot! You said Patricia was coming to this party, but I don't see her, do you?"

Dawitsu opened his mouth to say something, but Mamizou answered first, transforming into a fake Patricia before saying, "Well, you can see her now, can't you?"

"Wow, when did you get here, Patty?" Reimu asked in genuine awe.

"No, it's still me..." Mamizou answered, transforming back into her regular form, "...wow, she's really gone, isn't she?"

"I've been dealing with her for hours, just trying to keep her from going out in this state..." Dawitsu mused.

The night continued like this for a while, the class level remaining within reasonable levels, that was, until the alcohol was taken out. Sakuya, Suika, and Sanae all decided, in all their alliterative glory, to hog all of the whiskey Dawitsu had acquired throughout the years, and Dawitsu, surprisingly, didn't decide to join them in getting drunk, and instead was becoming more and more preoccupied with the fact that Patricia hadn't arrived yet... had she just turned down the invitation?

Dawitsu sighed, this was not going well... at this rate, the drugs Reimu was on would wear off and he would get an earful for lying... and to make matters worse, Yukari Yakumo and her Oni Shikigami had just entered the party, as spontaneously as the formation of Ammonia from Nitrogen and Hydrogen under high pressure. Strangely enough, she had got talking to her former shikigami while drinking directly from a vodka bottle she had pulled from the same nowhere that she had pulled herself from.

This was... a strange night. And then, _finally_, Dawitsu heard the sound of the bell he had been so desperately awaiting, and opened it to find Patricia, flanked by her 'Aunt' and 'Uncle'.

"Um... hey there, Dawitsu. Heard there was a party... are we late?" Patricia asked, but looked upon the drunken antics being caused by the three women bearing names beginning with S, and assumed that yes, they were.

Dawitsu laughed awkwardly to himself, "Well, yes, just a little..." Dawitsu suddenly noticed Patricia was a little fidgety around him, and cocked his head, asking, "...um... what's up, did I say something wrong?"

"N-never mind!" Patricia yelled, and barged into the house, running out of Dawitsu's immediate area as quickly as possible.

Marisa and Jean looked to each other, and the former asked, "Hmm, I wonder what's up with her?"

Jean shrugged his shoulders, "She seemed fine until she saw the mimicker... so, is Reimu here?"

"Yeah, she's high as Zeus on the couch over there, so she should be easy to deal with..." Dawitsu pointed to the set of couches in which Reimu was sitting, laughing to herself with glee as she watched Suika down an entire bottle of whiskey before the clearly impressed Sakuya and Sanae.

Meanwhile, Patricia was asking the exact same question of Chen, who was, for the most part, looking upon the whole affair as a little stupid.

"Hey, where's Mum... I mean, where's Reimu?" Patricia asked, "She came to the party, didn't she?"

Chen smirked to herself, "I heard everything when she got here... glad she interrupted Ran-sama and Dawi when she did... anyway, she's sitting over there." Chen pointed at the location in question, where Jean and Marisa were clearly gathering, "She's... been acting funny all day, I think Dawi and Ran-sama did something to her..."

Patricia instantly became concerned, and ran to see what that 'something' was, and called out, "Mum! Are you okay?"

Reimu suddenly became alert, and turned to Patricia's voice, slurring, "Hey... hey, Patricia, give your Mummy a hug, I've missed you so much!"

Patricia was very disconcerted by Reimu's odd behaviour, and turned to Marisa, "I don't suppose you know what's going on at the moment?"

"She's high, according to that mimicker..." Marisa answered, "...she's pretty funny, too..."

"Marisa, there's nothing funny about loving your daughter!" Reimu replied, "Patty, give me a hug! I heard that you gave these two slackers hugs, and I was the one who raised you, so give me a hug..."

Patricia sat down on the couch, afraid of what she'd do if she didn't oblige, and awkwardly hugged the older shrine maiden, who hugged with an unusual amount of force.

"...oh, Patty... you're a good girl, and... and... I'm sorry you lost against Marisa and that loser, but...maybe next time, huh?" Reimu said, "You solved the incident and that's what matters... I love you, Patty..."

Patricia was feeling highly uncomfortable by the whole situation, but tried to remain cheerful, "...I... I love you too..."

At this point, a fifth person entered the group of humans, one who was distinctly not human, and ambiguously youkai for that matter. The person in question was Yukari Yakumo, and, for once, she did not have her mysterious elegance with her in the slightest.

"Isn't this a charming moment?" Yukari asked, "It's good to know that Reimu still only lets her feelings know when influenced by a chemical of some sorts..."

Fortunately for Patricia, Reimu heard that remark, and released her successor, turning to face the Border Youkai, "Hey, Yukari, thanks for giving me Patricia like you did, you're awesome! But did you have to give her as a screaming baby, she was not easy to raise..."

Yukari chuckled to herself, "...wow, I think Dawitsu should give you Amineptine more often, you're quite affable like this..."

Marisa laughed at this, "Tell me about it, she's hilarious!"

Patricia rolled her eyes, "Speak for yourself, I'm the one she's hanging all over..."

Reimu began to giggle to herself, "Oh, Patty, I'm just telling you that I care, because... I...I think I'm a nasty mum at times, and I find it hard to be nice, but with that magic tea the loser youkai gave to me, I feel like I can say anything..."

Jean sighed, "...am I the only one who prefers the sober Reimu? She's slightly scary when she's like this..."

"Damn it, you're hot!" Reimu blurted out of nowhere to Jean, "Hey, why do you like Marisa more than me, huh? What's she got that I haven't?"

Yukari looked to Patricia, and calmly said, "...an argument's probably going to break out here... Patricia, I want to talk to you in private, if you will..."

Patricia took her leave from the socially dangerous situation, and said, "Yeah, sure, I can talk..."

Yukari opened a gap rather gratuitously, and the two walked out from the conversation, taking them a whole fifteen metres away, to the kitchen of the Dawitsu Mansion. There, Yukari took a seat at what was supposed to be a worktop, and gapped herself a bottle of sake for good measure.

"Miss Patricia Hakurei..." Yukari mused, "...you're quite the talented little girl, aren't you?"

"...well... not as talented as I thought..." Patricia mumbled, "I mean, I lost to Aunty Marisa, and I thought a Hakurei Shrine Maiden never loses any battles... what happened?"

Yukari chuckled to herself, "Wow, you're sharp. You knew I wanted to talk about your role as the Hakurei Miko of the future. So... how are you going to deal with your loss?"

"Um... I don't know..." Patricia honestly answered, "...well, I guess I should train more. I thought I was skilled enough to go out, but I guess I'm still only starting out..."

Yukari smiled to herself, "When Reimu started out, she could only walk about and bat a yin-yang orb around. She needed a certain... Chelonid Youkai whenever she wanted to fly. In terms of raw strength, she was actually much weaker than you when she was your age, though she doesn't like to admit it."

"But... but..." Patricia was suddenly feeling a little insulted for Reimu, "But she's still stronger than me, I just... have... a feeling about it."

"That's because there is a manner in which she was stronger than you, Patricia." Yukari explained, "Now, you're adopted, your mother was a coward who ran away from raising you, and so, I guess you can say that isn't anything to be sniffed at. But Reimu was just like that, and, to top it off, Reimu Hakurei the twelfth... that is, your predecessor's predecessor, she died a little prematurely. Reimu had to raise herself... it was a challenge for her to simply survive in Gensokyo on her own, let alone be powerful enough to challenge youkai and solve incidents..."

"...so... she had strength of character..." Patricia deduced Yukari's message rather swiftly.

"You're quick on the uptake." Yukari remarked, "Perhaps when you get to sixteen, you'll be even quicker than Reimu was at that age. Yes, what you... only partially lack, due to you being relatively spoiled, is strength of character. Reimu doesn't like to admit it, but at first, she worked incredibly hard to develop her skills, and nowadays, she has earned her position of being easily able to overwhelm almost anyone in her way. So, I ask you... what are you going to do to change that?"

The question hit Patricia pretty hard, and she didn't quite know what the 'right' response was. She hesitated, before saying, "...well... what would you suggest?"

Yukari drank a little sake, and mused, "I asked what _you're_ going to do to change that. I can't decide that for you..."

Patricia thought to herself, and then took out a certain octagonal prism from her pocket, "I... guess I could train myself in Marisa's magic, as that would give me something I have to study hard to grasp... that way I'll kind of know how Reimu felt..."

"That's... not a bad idea..." Yukari replied, "...I find it a shame that Marisa hasn't recruited herself a successor, but I'm not obligated to provide her with one. You... you're required for the upkeep of the Hakurei Border..."

Patricia smiled to herself, "Oh yeah, seeing as you're the Border Youkai, you'll know... what exactly does Reimu do to maintain the border? She's always so vague about it, and says that 'I'll know when the time comes'. What's she talking about?"

Yukari swigged from her bottle of sake again, and sat back, saying, "...well, don't tell Reimu I told you this, but maintaining the Hakurei Border goes something like this..."

_The party went on into the morning, the resulting mess of drunken and drug-influenced antics filling the Dawitsu Mansion with a great many noise... it had seemed that Patricia's adventure had finally come to a close._

_While the party was in the foyer, Patricia and Yukari stayed in the kitchen, and for a large portion of the night, simply talked over more complex issues than a drinking game known as 'Ring of Fire'. While drunk, Yukari almost acted as the unusually philosophical thirteen year-old's intellectual equal, and so, the conversations were both surprisingly simple and to the point, yet impenetrably complex on a conceptual level._

_Eventually their discussions were brought to an end by a certain older shrine maiden getting hungry and thirsty, and therefore demanded chocolate and spiked tea from the exasperated 'master' of the house, who ironically seemed to be the only sane person in the foyer at the moment..._

_Patricia ended up going home, along with Jean and Marisa, but almost everyone else at the party ended up in some variant of 'passed out on the floor', Dawitsu and Ran only staying because they lived there, and Yutaka Hadekawa due to an obligation to want to clean up after the chaos of the night._

_Truly, another tale had been brought to a close in Gensokyo, but who is to say what may have occurred in the future... the fantasy kitchen sink's entropy seemed to be slowly rising once again..._

Author's Note: Aaaaaaaaaaaaand done. This is it, final chapter. If you're gonna review the book at all, do it here, heh heh.

And a special congratulations to anyone who got through this without reading my older Touhou works, because you get blessed with not having to read the crappy things, yet still getting various hints at the continuity anyways...

...in fact, anyone who _did _come here without reading the rest of the series, please show yourselves and comment, I wanna see if this stood up okay on its own, heh heh.

Right, I'll be seeing ya! Byeeeee!


End file.
